For that spring was to be the turning point in her young life. Harriet lived a life of genteel poverty in a large, rambling house on the outskirts of the village of Lower Maxton in the county of Brent. The house was all that was left of the once great Clifton fortune. Her father, Mr. James Clifton. had been an inveterate gambler, and when he had died of typhoid, he had left his wife only a small annuity to go with the great mansion. Mrs. Clifton. always weak and ailing, had followed her husband to the grave two short months later. Harriet and her elder sister, Cordelia, were left in the charge of an elderly spinster aunt, Miss Rebecca Clifton. their late father’s sister. At the time of their mother’s death, Cordelia was eighteen and Harriet eleven. Cordelia was a strong-willed beauty, impatient with the new regime of poverty. Cordelia had caught the attention of a rich neighbor, Charles, Lord Bentley. When she announced her engagement to him. Harriet and her aunt had felt sure that life would take a more comfortable turn.
