Bath Tangle III

Serena is sorry for her stepmother, as she thinks it was a difficult marriage for Fanny, though she was fond of her husband and he looked after her. She was not really good at the political and social hostessing she was expected to do. She and Serena begin to meet a few people at Bath, at the Spa but a lot of the population are elderly or invalids. Serena begins to get a little restless. She is used to an active social life, with a lot of riding and hunting and Bath is not a city to ride about in. However, she meets a lady who turns out to be the grandmother of Emily Laleham. Mrs Floore is a widow, jolly and rather vulgar but shrewd and kindly. She is the daughter of a rich businessman, who married Mr Sebden, a gentleman and had one child, Emily's mother. She remarried to another rich businessman, and her daughter is snobbish and tries to avoid her. Serena and Fanny enjoy her company, but both of them are finding Bath a little dull, though its better than being at the Dower House. Then to her amazement, she is visiting the library and runs into the man she had loved years ago, Major Hector Kirkby. He is still very handsome, and charming, and has now sold out of the army and has inherited his father's estate, his older brother having died. He has a small estate in Kent, and is visiting his mother who is now living in Bath. Serena hurries home to tell Fanny, and feels a rush of the emotion she had for him as a girl of 19. Fanny meets him and thinks he is a very nice man and clearly is still in love with Serena. In a short time, he asks her if she thinks it would be all right to propose. Fanny tells him that Ivo Rotherham is now Serena's trustee, but she cant imagine that he would object to the marriage. Hector is a litlte wary, since Serena was engaged for a time to Ivo... but he soon proposes. Serena is delighted, though she does feel a little uneasy that Hector admires her so much and attributes virtues to her that she does not have. She goes to see Hector's mother, who is a hyponchondriac and who is a little embarrassed that her son has become engaged to a young woman from the higher ranks of Society. She feels that Serena will not fin into a small Kent Manor.