This is set in the 1920s, featuring a society heiress in New York who suddenly hears that she has lost her fortune. A bit predictable but pleasant enough reading, though there were rather too many authorial asides. A clear Christian message which wasn't too instrusive. Enjoyable light read, on the whole. ( )

Taken from the description from the back cover (which I thought did a good job): "If there was one thing Constance Wetherill couldn't accept, it was pity. So when her family fortune was lost she slipped away from town determined to start a new life rather than risk the sympathy of her wealthy socialite friends and admirers. Working for a living in a small town where she was a stranger brought unexpected rewards - not the least of them the earnest young minister who made her part of his flock. Until a man from her past tracked her down, and she was forced to choose between the new life she has built and the old luxuries she has always taken as her due."

This story was not one of my favorites by this author. It was a little slow moving for me, but I did enjoy some of the characters in the book and the way she brought them to life. ( )

Cover art on my copy (first paperback edition, published in 1986) shows man (on far left) looking much more startled or alarmed at coming across "The White Lady" (although she is dressed in wrong period for 1930 setting) than more recent edition.

At first I thought title might just be coincidence, as has less in common with WOMAN IN WHITE than some other stories I've mentioned--but then I recalled what happens to a villain (plus personality of a girl named Marion).

I was also trying to add my 1907 copy of THE SHUTTLE by Frances Hodgson Burnett, but can't maybe due to technical difficulties. This novel is sort of adult version of author's THE SECRET GARDEN. Compared with Wilkie's work, it is slow, wordy, involved sentences (Burnett didn't have privilege of Wilkie's higher education), but still has amusing aspects (FHB comical characters may please fans of Grace Livingston Hill).

THE SHUTTLE tells the tale of two daughters of an American millionaire and the problem of wheither--and when--an heiress should marry a titled, yet poor man.
Rosalie, the elder sister, is example of weak Victorian woman; her younger sister Bettina--Betty--is very intellegent, as well as strong and tall "New Woman", like those depicted by illustrator Charles Dana Gibson (see book "The Gipson Girl and her American".

Gipson's cartoons and "picture stories" include his comments on inter-marrianges involving money or titles such as "The Education of Mr. Pip", about an American family with two lovely daughters, takes trip to Europe where they marry into British aristocracy.

See also book "What Can a Woman Do" by L. M. Rayne, available as PDF download and paperback reprint (I own copy from late 1800's).