THE RELUCTANT CAVALIER

Mark Longburne is a Virginia gentleman and a curator, and the tranquil tempo of his life is pleasantly ruffled when he realizes he no longer wants to marry Angela, when he falls in love with Isobel Jason- newly come to the Institution and shadowed by the rigged trial which sent her father to jail, and by the disappearance of two valuable miniatures. The identification of the thief relieves Isobel of the onus of suspicion placed on her by some- but her obligation to her father prompts her to agree to marry another man whom she thinks can offer him protection- until her father's release from jail shows up her misguided and mistaken judgment frees her for Mark.... Soft mutations of mystery and romance for that idle hour.