A mother adopts a child so as to conceal his right to inherit an estate to which her own son seems heir-apparent.
In 1889, Agnes Catherine Maitland (1849-1906) became principal at Somerville College, one of the first Oxford colleges for women. Before that time she wrote a few novels, beginning in 1875, including this one.
After “somewhat conventional opening chapters . . . we find ourselves in the midst of a set of very real personages, drawn with a light but sympathetic touch. . . . In point of style the author is far in advance of the rambling method so frequent amongst female writers.” Athenaeum, November 21, 1885.
“A readable and, from the literary point of view, rather superior novel with a conventional plot.” Spectator, December 5, 1885.
Download this fortnight’s novel:
https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990143693230107026
(Right-click (or control-click, if you have a Mac) on the “view digitized copy” links to download the novel’s three volumes in pdf form)