Luckily there had been enough to buy the small house in smaller Shireoaks where they now lived and to invest the surplus to bring in a minute income every year which they all had to live on.
It had never even crossed Anthea’s mind that she should be doing anything other than looking after her mother and sisters.
Occasionally there was a ball in the neighbourhood to which she was invited and in fact she had attended two last winter after they were out of mourning.
But, while she had plenty of partners, they were mostly married men or youths whose mothers kept a strict eye on them and had no intention of allowing them to become involved with, ‘that penniless Forthingdale girl, however pretty she might be!’
When the letter had actually been sent to the Countess of Sheldon, Anthea had allo
