AustLit

A mature man recalls his youthful love for the mother of Mabel Helton and her love for another darkly mysterious man whom she married, only to discover he had seduced another woman by pretending marriage. That woman killed him, all three dying close together. The narrator raised the daughter, and loving her with the peace of middle age and not the passion of youth, wins her consent to their marriage. Philosophical musings fill the tale - air of mystery and tragedy leading to a hard won peace. Interesting even bizarre in some of its implications; includes a curiously overdrawn quality too. (PB)