A charming work of fiction from the early 1900s

Surprisingly good...a focus on doing your best and being decent. Also an interesting background of the first railroads and the fears people had about them. ( )

3.5 stars (rating may differ depending on whether site allows half star ratings).

A friend introduced me to books by Grace Livingston Hill when we were in college. I later found a list with all the titles GLH had published and set out to read all of them. (I accomplished that.) So I have read this before but it has been a long time. I did not realize it was part of a trilogy at the time I first read it--though I do seem to remember that there were at least two books that I realized had similar characters, so this might have been one of those.

I liked this better than the last GLH book I re-read, but it is easy to tell that it was written at a different time in publishing history. There are about 3 stories that could be written from this book and fleshed out. GLH does have a habit of throwing narrative telling into the book rather than showing the reader and drawing him/her into the story.

Marcia is a good, responsible girl who's a bit overshadowed by her older sister Kate. Part of the overshadowing is because Kate is engaged and her wedding is to be soon but it also seems that Kate has overshadowed Marcia much of her life. Kate is more of a "give me what I want, when I want it" kind of character. She does what makes her feel good at the time and apparently has never been made to reap the consequences of her decisions in the past, and she doesn't often think of how her actions affect others.

Kate decides to elope with a former boyfriend whom her father never liked. She's convinced her family and her former fiance will forgive her--that they'll send her her trousseau and that she'll still be able to string David (the former fiance) along by his feelings even though she's married to someone else.

Instead, Dad gives the trousseau to Marcia, who agrees to marry David to help both him and her family through the tough spot. In a way, it was God watching out for both of them since Marcia and David seem much better suited to each other than Kate and David were. Marcia and David are both "good"--they try to do the right thing. Marcia and David are also both interested in politics and in engineering/railroads. Marcia is able to speak knowledgeably about these topics because she and her father discussed them. Kate meanwhile wants a fancy house and fancy clothes and the hustle and bustle of New York--telling when GLH says Kate feels she'll be happy only in New York--if you're not happy with yourself, a change of venue is less likely to make you happy long-term.

There were times I wanted to shake David and Marcia both since they didn't communicate with each other. David is too caught up in his lost plans for a life with Kate and his love for Kate and Marcia doesn't want to "bother" him or upset him. David doesn't see that two of his aunts make Marcia miserable--instead he sends her to stay with them while he's out of town--yes, apparently back then, a woman couldn't stay in her own home alone for protracted periods while her husband was out of town for work. How times have changed. Many of their issues could have been shortened or avoided if only they'd talked to one another.

I did admire that David when to Marcia and told her what happened with Kate in New York instead of just trying to hide it. That meant Marcia was not blindsided when it came up later. ( )

My first impression: stilted language, idealized setting,impossible plot, but now I'm beginning to think that this is the convention. I have limited experience reading romance. I've generally disdained it, to be frank, but recently I've been wondering what romance (and its wide readership) is really about.
Here's my thoughts on this one: the hero goes through 6 stages: (1) deceived and thus addicted (2) personal realization of his addiction - the kiss in NYC and subsequent soul searching night (3) realization that the object of his addiction is nasty, in a word (when he reads the letters) (4) realization that he has wronged, seriously wrong the heroine (this thread has been growing slowly (5) an effort to look at life from the heroine's point of view - the examination of the bonnet being a metaphor - and (6) the intention to make amends.
This kind of mythic journey makes for an engaging story. It's a shame that the characters seem to be cardboard symbols. ( )

Marcia Schuyler has a sister who is about to marry David Spafford. But on the eve of her wedding the sister runs away with another man, which leaves a scandal in the family. Marcia agrees to take her sister's place at the last minute to "save face". David also agrees, but is in shock as to what has happened. Marcia is young, but quickly learns to love David. David however doesn't really "see" Marcia at all, because he is too broken up about the sister. David will come to realize what a "gem" he has for a wife. (The stories "Phoebe Deane" and "Miranda" should follow this story). ( )