And now he has gone wooing a woman decidedly above his standing, to her disgust.

As it happens, it is her friend May who receives the tentative, even clumsy attentions from the slender young man. The widowed Lady Attlebridge's slenderly dowered daughter, May does have a much more qualified suitor, Weston Marchmont -- who everyone thinks would be a superb match, being well above the ordinary run, well-educated and possessed with ample wealth and every prospect of a high career.

Yet a feeling stirs within May -- something almost like a sense of adventure unfulfilled by her everyday life -- that makes her not quite turn away when Quisante comes to call.

Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins (1863-1933), writing under the name of Anthony Hope, gained fame with The Prisoner of Zenda and other novels of an England well behind us but not forgotten.