Kissing the Rod: A Novel. (Vol. 3 of 3)

After a wife's abrupt departure and the death of his father-in-law, a husband must shoulder public duties while privately reeling from guilt and humiliation, attending to estate and legal arrangements amid household suspense. A separate newly married couple return from abroad and settle into domestic life; the wife's ardent devotion gradually yields uneasy jealousy as she measures her husband's easy temper. The narrative follows shifting alliances, social maneuvering at a country seat, and the consequences of pride, secrecy, and moral failing, tracing how private faults collide with public reputation and the slow work of restitution and change.