Cecil Castlemaine's Gage, Lady Marabout's Troubles, and Other Stories

Ouida, the razor-sharp voice of Victorian society, turns her gaze on Cecil Castlemaine: a woman beautiful enough to halt traffic on Bond Street, proud enough to topple ministries, and stubborn enough to let both slip through her fingers for the sake of a Tory election. Cecil descends the grand staircase of Lilliesford with the calculated precision of a chess master, turning away suitors like cards from a discarded deck while her heart remains stubbornly fixed on Sir Fulke Ravensworth, an envoy whose allegiances shift like autumn winds. These interconnected stories explore the brutal economics of reputation, the silent wars fought over dinner tables, and the precise moment when personal conviction becomes professional ruin. Ouida writes with an insider's knowledge of how the machinery of class actually works, how a single misplaced glance can bring decades of social standing crashing down. For readers who crave the barbed wit of Vanity Fair, the romantic anguish of Broughton, and sharp-elbowed feminism predating Woolf by decades.