He had Lent Hunter the £300 to buy a paddock for his children... but it was promptly repaid. He realizes that Mrs. Hunter is not aware of this – that the money was repaid... and he offers to take the paddock as part repayment for the legal work he is kindly doing. Mrs. Hunter, in shock and grief and embarrassed that her husband had been in debt, agrees to this...
Lockwood salves his conscience by telling himself that he
will be a good friend to Mrs Hunter and do a lot of work for her and her 3
children... but in practice he does little.
They have to sell their house and move to a poorer part of the town and
live on a small income. Mrs Hunter is
shy and sensitive and never manages to fit in with her new neighbours, and she
has lost touch with all her middle class friends except for Mrs Lockwood. The children have school friends but they
also are friendly with the Lockwoods. However all 3 of them (Molly, Martin and Thea)
are hurt by the patronising way that the Lockwood children treat them. Claire the youngest of the 3 girls is
pleasant but the twin daughters, Bea and Muriel very much resemble their
domineering father and like to lord it over the Hunters.
Thea, the youngest Hunter child, is the cleverest. She does
well at school, and is envious of the Lockwoods who are not that clever but
have more books, go to a boarding school and have much more opportunities than
she has. She is eager to have a good education and find a job….
Her older sister Molly becomes a nursery governess in her
teens because the family need to add to their income – and Molly is not very
clever and has no other job opportunities. Martin leaves school and goes into a
bank, because he knows he has no hope of training at anything that will be a
career…But Thea is more ambitious and more resentful of the Lockwoods…
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