Mrs Gareth, widowed chatelaine of Poynton, is fighting to keep her house with its priceless objets d'art from her son Owen and his lovely, utterly philistine fiancee. When she discovers that her young
Henry James conceived the character of Hyacinth Robinson?his 'little presumptuous adventurer with his combination of intrinsic fineness and fortuitous adversity'?while walking the streets of London.
