How they loved him, Vol. 2 (of 3) : $b A novel

"How they loved him, Vol. 2 (of 3) by Florence Marryat is a novel written in the late 19th century. It is a romantic and social drama about a young woman’s first love colliding with duty, vanity, and public reputation. The story centers on Fenella Barrington’s devoted love for the charming but weak Geoffrey Doyne, the calculating pressure of Jessie Robertson’s family, and the self-serving ambitions of Fenella’s mother. The opening of the book follows Fenella at Ines-cedwyn, where she idolizes Geoffrey and meets him secretly on the sands until he is called to London. There, pushed by his lawyer brother and Jessie’s formidable mother, Geoffrey fails to stand firm, begs Jessie to release him, and—after she refuses—marries her. Meanwhile, Fenella returns to London with her maid and then her mother, who immediately schemes to capitalize on her daughter’s new beauty, while Fenella anxiously awaits word from Geoffrey. She learns the truth not from him but from a newspaper marriage notice, collapses, and a doctor hints that her sudden illness springs from a deep mental shock.