Because of the Lockwoods Redux

Some time ago I began a blog on this Novel by Dorothy Whipple. It is set in the 1920s in a northern mill town in England. Whipple wrote about the middle classes in Northern England, but she had a sharp wit like Jane Austen. This was one of her later works, about 2 families the Lockwoods, a well to do solicitor and his wife and 3 daughters and Mrs Hunter, a widow from a middle class background who also has 3 children. However her husband died during the war, and left her with very little money. Mr Lockwood offered to help her out with managing her husband's small fortune but did very little for her, and cheated her out of a paddock which Mr Hunter had bought with a loan from him. Mrs Hunter is not very clever and she has never managed money before, leaving it all to her husband, so she did not realise that the loan had been repaid and Mr Lockwood was cheating her. Lockwood was always impatient with Mrs Hunter and when Molly, the eldest child was 15, he got her a job as a governess, with a difficult family. Martin, the only son was put into a bank where he did not have the drive to do more than progress slowly up the ladder. Thea, the youngest child was clever and bitterly resented the patronage of the family. She managed to stay at school till she was 18, but then the Lockwood girls were being sent to France to learn French, and she resented them even more for having opportunities to study that they did not care about, and felt that she must find a way of going as well. She managed to get a place at the school au pair.. that she would teach English in exchange for learning French. The Hunters had to move from their comfortable home, soon after RIchard Hunter's death, to rent a small home in the town, and they have been living on a small annuity arranged by Mr Lockwood, which just about keeps them, but they never become friends with the local people. Mrs Hunter is shy rather than snobbish but it makes the children isolated. A new family move in just before Thea goes to France, the Reades. Oliver Reade is a young man who has come up from poverty and looked after his widowed mother and his sister Edith, getting a job in the local Market and setting up his own business. He is an energetic hard working young man who excels at selling. He is happy to have brought his family to a better house, but when he sees the Hunters, he tries to make friends with them. Martin is willing to be friendly, but Thea thinks that Oliver is vulgar and noisy and snubs him. He is embarrassed but still finds himself attracted to her and wants to get to know her. When Thea and several girls from the town arrive in France, they find that the school is not what they expected. It is a small provincial school, with few amenities, and the Lockwood girls want to go home immediately. However, Angela Harvey, the most socially grand of the group, decides to stay, as she wants a career and wants to learn French, so they stay as well, though they dont bother with lessons. Thea also feels cheated as the French headmistress does not proffer French lessons; she expects Thea to teach but says that she will learn French from hearing it all round her. She struggles with teaching difficult classes but manages to do the job, and it does have the effect of lessening her anger with the Lockwoods because she is so busy surviving. She becomes friendly with Jeanne who is studying to be a teacher as well, and who tells her that in France, a girl is not likely to get married unless she has some kind of dowry. Thea finds this shocking. After a few months, she is told by the headmistress that she will now be sent out to teach Jacques Farnet English. He is the brother of a pupil and his mother wants him to learn to read and write English, for his business. Thea is angry at being sent out like this but is a little pleased to be able to get out of the school a bit more. She finds herself becoming attracted to Jacques, who is a handsome young man a few years her senior. He clearly likes her too and invites her to go with him for a picnic in a small wood belonging to his family, just outside the town. Thea wants to go but does not agree for a few weeks, since she knows the conventions in small towns in France are very strict. Girls of the middle class dont go out with young men. After a time, she does agree to go, and unfortunately, she and he are found. THey were in a little hut on the property. Thea's going out by herself has been noticed and Jacques' mother and the headmistress followed them. Thea is sent home. Jacques tries to see her but is not allowed to. She arrives back in England and tells her mother that she didnt do anything wrong by English standards but in French towns the rules are strict. Mrs Hunter is willing to understand and beleive her daughter but she is worried. She had hopes that because Thea was both clever and pretty, she would go to college and become succesful, but now Thea is back at home with a lot of gossip about her, since the Lockwoods wrote to their mother about the scandal.