Alice Dugdale, the eldest daughter of a village doctor and a drudge and nursemaid for his second wife, had grown up with the vicar’s son John Rossiter. When he returned from the wars a major, the villagers assumed that they would marry. However, Lady Wanless had selected John as a husband for her second daughter, Georgiana, and pursued him with more vigor than tact. John could not but compare the advantages of county as against village, but his love for Alice won over his ambition.