
In a quiet Scottish town, a spirited young maid arrives at a modest draper’s shop seeking directions to the house of the venerable Mistress Macdonald. The journey takes her along winding hedgerows to a weather‑worn home that radiates the echoes of generations—children’s laughter, lovers’ whispers, and the soft hum of everyday life now muted by age.
Inside, the dining room becomes a stage for a weary family confronting the inevitable decline of their matriarch. The daughters, a stout married woman and a frail spinster, argue with the local minister and the family doctor over how best to care for a mind slipping backward through memory. As the new servant steps into this solemn household, she must navigate the tangled loyalties, quiet resentments, and the fragile hope that still lingers behind the fading gaslight.
Language
en
Duration
~7 hours (440K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Release date
2006-03-30
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1858–1923
A sharp, thoughtful novelist and religious essayist, this Canadian writer built a career in Britain while pushing against the limits of her evangelical upbringing. Her fiction is often remembered for its intelligence, moral seriousness, and interest in women’s inner lives.
View all books
by L. (Lily) Dougall

by L. (Lily) Dougall

by L. (Lily) Dougall

by L. (Lily) Dougall

by L. (Lily) Dougall

by Maria Edgeworth

by Abraham Cahan

by Eliza Fowler Haywood