The Hand Of Ethelberta

"Do you mean to say that the lady who sat here for dinner... is your daughter?' asked Doncastle. 'Yes, sir,' said Chickerel respectfully. 'How did she come to be your daughter?' Ethelberta Petherwin is a young widow and the star of every salon. Her passionate poetry is the talk of fashionable society. Beautiful, witty and, surely, wealthy and well-connected, a faint air of mystery only increases her allure. But if the hand of Ethelberta is London's most sought-after prize, it is because no one has yet noticed her family. For she is one of the ten children of a butler. She is determined to win a rich husband in order to provide for her family. There is, for instance, Lord Mountclere. But will a lord welcome a butler as his father-in-law? The most comprehensive edition available, with introduction, notes, selected criticism, text summary and chronology of Hardy's life and times"