The lost bride; vol. 1

"The lost bride; vol. 1" by Lady Georgiana Chatterton is a novel written in the late 19th century. It traces a young woman’s coming-of-age as love, faith, and identity are tested by a dramatic reversal of fortune, moving from an Italian childhood to English high society; key figures include her intense first love, Carlo Spinola, her manipulative guardian Henry Mordaunt, and the morally steady friend Norah Chandos. The opening of this novel follows the narrator from a passionate Italian girlhood and the death of her English father to a Paris convent and then to Langdale Priory, her ancestral home. There she bonds with shrewd, kind Aunt Jane, whose family history hints that the true heir may be the son of the narrator’s lost elder uncle. Amid growing attachment to the estate and a tentative friendship with the candid, warm-hearted Norah Chandos (in sharp contrast to Norah’s ostentatious new step-mother), the narrator is rocked by her guardian’s ultimatum: marry him and keep the property, or refuse and forfeit all. She rejects him and soon learns the Canadian marriage and son are real; the heir is coming and she must leave. Wrestling with pride, love, and money, she briefly considers becoming a governess at the Chandos home, receives a small settlement (for herself and her mother), and is buoyed—uneasily—into London society by Lady Horatia Somerton. As she frets over a cooling letter from Carlo, the scene closes with preparations for her first great ball.

The lost bride; vol. 1, by Lady Georgiana Chatterton. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #78575.