Louisa Pallant

At a fashionable summer resort in Homburg, an American narrator is startled to encounter Mrs. Henry Pallant, a woman from his past, walking with her beautiful daughter, Linda. Their reunion reopens old wounds: she is the woman who once broke his heart, yet time has made him less severe in judgment and more aware of the hard, worldly life she has survived. Into this delicate emotional balance comes his young nephew Archie Parker, an innocent, healthy modern American abroad, whose presence turns the household into a subtle social experiment. As the narrator spends more time with Mrs. Pallant and Linda, he is struck by the mother's polished wit and guarded warmth, and by Linda's quiet beauty, intelligence, and almost unnervingly finished perfection. The two seem bound by an unusually close, secretive understanding, and the narrator begins to suspect that beneath the elegant outings and easy conversation, something more complicated is at work. Archie and Linda grow increasingly companionable, and the narrator, uneasy but fascinated, is drawn into a tense question of flirtation, duty, and possible manipulation. When Mrs. Pallant suddenly warns him that Archie may be in love and urges him to act, the narrator must decide whether to intervene. Then mother and daughter abruptly vanish, leaving him baffled, suspicious, and deeply unsettled by the mysteries of desire, family loyalty, and social strategy. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.