Death in the Grand Manor

Universally disliked by the members of this community, are Mr. and Mrs. Conrford—the nouveaux riches inhabitants of the Manor House at Roakes. This family ‘evinced no joy at their new surroundings, while growing daily more inimical to all their neighbors.

Tessa has other things on her mind beside the Cornfords when she goes to stay at Roakes with her cousin Toby and his wife, Matilda. She is engaged with thoughts of her career, with coping with her eccentric cousins and Toby's eleven-year-old daughter, and with the memory of a young man she has met only once in odd circumstances in the local pub.