The Clever Woman of the Family

On her twenty-fifth birthday, Rachel decides that the familiar duties of a young lady fall short of the work she wants to undertake. Her sister Grace urges her to wear their mother's gift of white roses, while Rachel worries about the health of the workers who make fashionable ornaments. Teaching boys and visiting cottages seem too small a response to the suffering she reads about. She dreams of founding an establishment to ease the burdens of working women.

Family conversation gives this domestic novel much of its movement, setting Rachel's forceful convictions beside Grace's tact and their mother's wishes. A later carriage ride with Alick brings Rachel through villas, fields and village cottages to Mr. Clare's quiet rectory, where books and parish work fill the room. The close attention to presents, clothing, household routines and social calls gives readers a concrete view of the expectations Rachel questions. Her search for useful work makes ambition and family obligation subjects of everyday debate.