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This novel was written in London, seven years after her marriage later in life to Alfred Felkin. It revolves around the life of Nicholas who discovers late that wise and honourable paths are not always the best paths.
The beautiful sisters Zillah and Adah Treherne are waiting expectantly for husband material to turn up. There is Owen, good-looking and with financial means but a brute. And there is Nicholas, sensible and altruistic, tending towards ugly and with no money. Satisfied that he is doing right he goes off to wait for the time when his finances would be sufficient enough to support his mother and to make a marriage proposal. Although, when his godfather dies, he is left with an inheritance that allows him to become self-sufficient, it is not timely enough to avert a dramatic episode which turns all their lives upside down.
Some time in the future, after Nicholas has started to make a name for himself in the literary world, his eyes start to fail him. However, he falls again into a procrastination trap of waiting respectfully for an invitation from one for whom he has a great concern. This results in further disappointment and it is twenty years later before the story resolves itself with a neat and unexpected twist in the plot.
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Page created 19 November 2002 and last
updated 19 November 2002
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