ywood adopted in her next novel a plan that permitted her to
include a pot-pourri of short narratives, conversations, letters,
reflections, and miscellaneous material without damaging the
comprehensive scheme of her story. Except that it lacks the consistent
purpose of traducing the fair fame of her contemporaries,[18] "The
Invisible Spy" (1755), written under the pseudonym of "Exploralibus," is
not essentially different in structure from the "Memoirs of a Certain
Island." Love is still the theme of most of the anecdotes, no longer the
gross passion that proves every woman at heart a rake, but rather a
romantic tenderness that inclines lovely woman to stoop to folly. From
the world of Lady Mellasin, Harriot Loveit, Mr. Trueworth, Lord Huntley,
Miss Wingman, and other Georgian fashionables that filled the pages of
"Betsy Thoughtless" and "Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy" we are transported
again to the pale company of Celadon, Alinda, Placentia, Adario,
Melanthe. A framework analogous to that in Le Sage's "Le Diable Boiteux"
takes the place of a plot. With a belt of invisibility and a recording
tablet, Exploralibus is able to collect whatever is affecting,
ludicrous, vicious, or otherwise noteworthy in the conversation,
actions, and manners of society. But the shadowy nature of the observer
fails to give to the necessarily disconnected incidents even the slight
unity possible in the adventures of a lap-dog, a cat, a mouse, a flea,
or a guinea. The contents of a single section of "The Invisible Spy" is
enough to show how little thought the author expended upon the sequence
of the narrative.

Book VI. Disguised as her husband, a villain carries off the young
Matilda from a masquerade and ruins her. Alexis sends her away to the
country and endeavors to forget her in the pleasures of the town. The
contents of a lady's pocket:--a catalogue of imaginary books attributed
to the initials of well known persons of quality; two letters, the first
from Philetes to excuse his attendance, and the other from Damon making
an appointment on the spot where the pocket was found. The foppish Miss
Loiter is contrasted with the well trained children of Amadea. Narcissa,
endeavoring to avoid marriage with the detested Oakly, is entrapped by
the brother of her waiting-maid, who though only a common soldier, poses
as Captain Pike.

Though the novel exhibits some pictures of life which at the time were
considered natural,[19] and some bits of satire rat