Lady Frances Trafford has become engaged to a post office clerk called George Roden. Her brother, Lord Hampstead, falls in love with Marion Fay, the daughter of a Quaker. Their step-mother, Lady Kingsbury considers both proposed marriages to be unacceptable, as they would be "marrying down" the social classes. Lord Kingsbury was a Radical in his youth, but has become more conservative with age and the influence of his wife.

I enjoyed a chunk in the middle of this book very much, but the beginning was dull and the ending overly sentimental and not at all what I expect of Trollope.

Likes: Crocker, Miss Demijohn, the scene where Hampstead and Mr Fay try to talk at the latter's office and are constantly interrupted, the fact that the Quaker Fay was not opposed to his daughter marrying Hampstead, the evil Mr Greenwood (although I think Trollope made him persist too long at the end), the appalling Lady Kingsbury and, finally, Lady Amaldina and her surprisingly successful marriage.

Dislikes: too much repetition (especially re Marion's reasons for refusing Hampstead), too much discussion of class difference (as opposed to letting the characters demonstrate this), Marion was deeply annoying and read like a Victorian stereotype, rather than a Trollope heroine, the way she seemed to die because she decided she would, endless rehashing of her pure motives etc etc. ( )