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To Laurian Vale's father, Philip Dallas represented position and culture - in fact the sort of man he expected his daughter to marry. Laurian, however, had other views. From the back of the dust wrapper: "Mother, Dad, I want to tell you that I'm leaving home." Her father put down his paper. "Leaving home?" "Yes, I'm going to find a job. I shall stay at Uncle Adrian's for a week or so while I look round." "When, Laurian?" asked her mother quietly. "I'm going Monday." "I see." "Would you care to enlighten us a little more?" suggested her father ironically. "Are you going because you no longer care for your home, or for us?" "I'm going because I want freedom to live my own life. It's been said, by you and others, that I have no knowledge of the world, that your money has kept me safe from it. Well, I'm going to earn my own living and live my own life." |
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Everyone was quite sure that wealthy Laurian Vale would accept Philip Dallas; they were a perfect match, such a good-looking couple - and, as Mr Vale remarked, it would do his daughter no harm to have a baronet for a father-in-law. But Laurian herself wasn't so sure: Philip was pleasant enough, but when she was with him she felt no excitement, none of the romantic thrills she had expected from the man who was to be her husband . . . And then she met Roy, a worker in her father's factory, who, in a single meeting, swept her off her feet - it was like her secret dream come true. Dizzy with happiness, she planned to defy her family and marry the man of her own choice - but her father, convinced that Roy was only interested in her money, begged her to wait six months. Laurian agreed, but six months seemed like a lifetime . . . |