Two waifs, John and Alice Withers, are received into the Staffordshire workhouse, where the boy learns cotton spinning. After he has passed his apprenticeship, he goes to work at a mill in Lancashire. John Withers marries his master’s insignificant daughter and after she dies his supposed sister Alice comes to live as housekeeper with him and his daughter Marian. Marian learns the misery of unrequited love when she goes to visit Mrs. Arl at Knutsford and falls in love with Albert, who forgets her as soon as she leaves, for the more worldly Mrs. Wollaston.....
Marian Withers
Author: Geraldine Jewsbury