The Outcry

At Dedborough Place, an old country house alive with children's festivities and private anxieties, Lady Sandgate presides over a world where elegance, wit, and hidden motives are inseparable. Lord John arrives with mixed purposes: to see Lady Grace, to manage delicate family business, and to navigate the embarrassment of Kitty Imber's debts, a reminder that in this society money can stain reputation as surely as scandal. His brisk, elusive conversation with Lady Sandgate reveals a household ruled by tact, courtship, and the quiet pressure of finance. The stakes rise with the arrival of Breckenridge Bender, an American collector whose appetite for art threatens the family's treasures, including a prized Lawrence portrait and other cherished works. Lady Sandgate, Hugh Crimble, and Lord John circle the question of whether these heirlooms should pass into private hands or be secured for something larger and more public. As Lady Grace's refusal of Lord John's proposal sparks her father's anger, Hugh finds himself drawn into both the romantic and moral consequences. In the end, Grace and Hugh form a fragile alliance, united by sympathy and principle as Dedborough faces a collision of inheritance, commerce, patriotism, and desire. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.