Easthope, an old Tudor mansion, has been kept in the self-respecting Trefusis family since the times of Henry the Seventh. Now the estate is receiving a visit from a young woman, Janet Black, of remarkable beauty – so remarkable, in fact, that a portrait of her to be painted in a few years’ time will stun the art world.

Miss Black might have expected open arms and festive celebration to welcome her to Easthope – for she is arriving as one who will take on the Trefusis name, and who will oversee Easthope alongside the young man now mainly known as the Squire, George Trefusis.

Yet Mrs. Trefusis, the Squire’s mother, is disturbed at her son’s choice. Janet is striking, but without breeding. Uncouth, clumsy, and ignorant: what is to be done with such a girl so utterly common? And what, for that matter, is to be done with such a son as George, who falls so easily and so completely for such empty beauty?

Novelist Mary Cholmondeley (1859-1925) established her place in English letters at the turn of the last century with her wittily satiric novels of middle-class life.