A lady and her husband
About This Book
The novel traces the domestic life of a genteel family whose outward comforts conceal shifting affections and anxieties. A young woman confides her romantic feelings to her reserved mother, prompting reflections on tenderness, pride, and maternal duty. The household undertakes philanthropic work, recruiting a pragmatic secretary whose presence highlights tensions between sentiment and organisation. Interwoven scenes reveal a past business failure that shaped family fortunes and marriages, exposing strains beneath respectability. Through intimate episodes and understated social detail the narrative examines marriage, responsibility, and the balance between public ideals and private emotion.