An interesting piece of social history, as well as an interesting story in its own right. Mary Augusta Ward wrote this just after the First World War, and just before she died. She makes astute observations on the changing social role of women in England, as they took up war work to replace the absent men and gained financial and political clout. In some ways it seems old-fashioned to modern eyes, the whole conflict being based on the fact that Rachel Henderson is a Woman with a Past. But other themes are timeless: the jealous former lover, the effect on the spirits of stress and the importance of good friends. ( )