Diana Carew

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. Diana Carew's sheltered, affectionate life is shaken when an invitation from the elegant Mrs. Warrington offers her a doorway into the wider world of New Year festivities, society, and romance. Raised in a once-prosperous family now living in quiet decline, Diana loves her widowed father, adores her spirited brother Curly, and takes pride in the simple joys of home, animals, and music even while longing, with disarming honesty, for love and a fuller life. Her first venture into preparation for society becomes both comic and poignant: a borrowed ancestral gown, old family treasures, and the help of loyal Gay and teasing Curly reveal how closely pride, poverty, and tenderness are bound together in the Carew household. But the glittering promise of society soon gives way to deeper feeling. Diana's secret and impossible love for Captain Montagu leads to a moonlit confession filled with restraint, duty, and heartbreak, while Hector's anxious suspicions and wounded silence add tension to her return. By morning, Diana is forced to confront the pain of uncertainty and the risk of scandal, and she resolves to leave at once. Warm, witty, and emotionally charged, this novel blends domestic comedy, social contrast, and a poignant coming-of-age romance.