Summary

Chapter 1 opens at the Netley Cottage in Biddington, Dorsetshire in 1818. Charles Linfield has just told Katherine Talbot he is not going to marry her. Katherine, better known as Kitty to her friends and family, begins to question him and learns that he has asked Mary Spencer to marry him. Charles says his mother and Mary helped him realize that Kitty would not be an appropriate spouse considering his plan to pursue a political career. Charles tries to say they were not formally engaged, but Kitty says they were recently making plans for the wedding. Kitty's four sisters are soon at her side. They include Beatrice who is 19 years old, a year younger than Kitty; 18-year-old Cecily; Harriet who is younger than Cecily; and 10-year-old Jane, who is the youngest. Cecily spent two years in a college for young ladies, the only one of...