Dick, raised by his vicar uncle and aunt, got away with breaking St. Peter's halo in the stained glass window of the church when he was a boy; it was the wickedest thing he could think to do, sitting on his mother's grave, in retaliation for an unjust punishment for something he didn't deserve to be punished for.

Before we know it, he is a promising young medical doctor who married his widow patient, the Little White Lady, for her money. He got away with that too. But for all his scheming, the Little White Lady out-schemed him to give him what he wanted, but with redemption in the bargain.

That's only one of many twists in this surprisingly engaging novel set in early 20th Century England. The sentences are full and flowing; sometimes long with words that a schoolboy would have to look up in the dictionary. They are the kind of sentences that are full of dignity and command willing attention. Contemporary authors don't write like that.

I'm committed to reading Barclay's more famous book, The Rosary; but after an interlude of something more modern. I don't want to risk the possibility of becoming weary of Barclay's authorial gracefulness. ( )