Proud Lady

On a tense spring morning in a small town, Mary Lavinia Lowell stands at the center of a household strained by class pride, buried feeling, and the lingering shadow of the Civil War. Beautiful, self-contained, and difficult to read, she awaits the return of Captain Laurence Carlin, the young soldier she has long been engaged to, even as her mother recoils from the match and her father watches with quiet irony and concern. When Laurence arrives, his joy and reverence collide with Mary's composed reserve, revealing how war has transformed him and how uncertain their future has become. As family tensions deepen, the stern, spiritually charged presence of Reverend Hilary Robertson unsettles both Mary and Laurence, while the doctor reflects on age, sacrifice, and the cost of lives lost to war. Meanwhile, the household's emotional balance shifts further when Laurence turns to Nora, the devoted servant whose lifelong affection for him has grown into love. In this intimate, morally uneasy drama, desire, duty, faith, and resentment intertwine, exposing the fragile bonds holding the Lowell and Carlin families together. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.