An Engagement of Convenience

From her window in Hampstead, Alice Robinson watches an artist whose life seems far brighter than her own. Walter Lloyd Wyndham has a studio, fashionable visitors and work in exhibitions. When a financial collapse costs him his money, Alice follows the decline of his career with anxious devotion. She has admired him for years without making his acquaintance, and the wish to help him becomes the centre of her private life.

Louis Zangwill sets this novel among suburban households, artists' studios and wealthy social circles. Wyndham's pride and Alice's idealised view of him create a sharp difference between what each person sees and what each understands. His feelings for Lady Betty complicate the comfort Alice hopes to provide. Readers interested in unequal attachments and the pressure of money on personal choices will find a story built around competing loyalties, guarded conversations and the distance between affection and understanding.