STARRBELOW

The unabashedly romantic story of Sophia Devigne, who is imported from Italy to make the marriage to Lord Weyburn of Starrbelow which will redeem her family's fortunes, and ten years later is calumniated and convicted as wanton, as guilty of the murder of her only friend, her marriage bigamous, her son illegitimate. Innocent and beautiful, Sophia becomes half defiant, half disdainful after her first (accidentally indecent) exposure to society; she is abandoned at the church after the ceremony by Charles Weyburn when he discovers that he has been tricked into marriage; and she conceals her love for him in the protection of her friend Christine, for whose sake she submits to all these charges- after Christine's death- in the loyalty which has already cost her many years of happiness.... An element of enigma sustains a decorative drama of the 18th century which flourishes on its farrago of emotions- concealed, misguided, and finally returned. Light.