Cirrus@Austlit

English society tale of a Lady B. married to a brutal drunken husband who attempts to force her to invite a disgraceful friend to their home and to allow their attractive governess to attend dinner with guests. She loves and is loved by her cousin but will not leave her children. The governess flirts with Lord B. to persuade him to force his wife to allow her to attend dinner so that she may be on equal terms with the infatuated noble suitor who has wrangled a hunt invitation for himself. She leaves Lord B. alone in the garden when they have arranged to meet - and when he finds her with her suitor in another part of the garden threatens to expose her plotting. She thrusts a stool in his drunken path, he falls, and kills himself. The governess' suitor rejects her as a traitress and a murderess. Well written piece of fiction on the whole; male violence and abuse; female manipulation - but sense that governess need not have been so bad ... (PB)