Pairings begun in previous volumes come to fruition and other characters surface with promises of future couplings. Lucy's marriage to Sam Adams seals his acceptance by the 'county', bringing new blood and, not to be overlooked, new money, into the mix. Jessica Dean marries her manager Aubrey Clover leaving a brooding Oliver Marling, and Mrs Brandon escapes her selfish son when she marries Canon Joram. The younger women have occupations but not yet 'careers' and Isabel Dale's success as a mystery writer is somehow less important than the dilettante efforts of the males of the species. Isabel's family inheritance brings 'county' money to her engagement to the tax-impoverished Lord Silverbridge, making his standing for Parliament a possibility (Conservative, of course) in the continuing battle with 'Them'. We sense in these events the further encroachment of a new middle class no longer based on land ownership and family.

Amalia Angeloni Jacobucci