A wonderfully circumlocutory exposition on love, marriage and honor in the early 20th century.Louisa and Mary, daughters of the impoverished vicar of Aldecross, see only marriage as a means of escape from their routine lives. The arrival of a new young curate fills them with anticipation, but will his intellectual qualities match up to the more physical attractions of Alfred Durant, the son of a local miner? Lawrence's novella is a classic tale of the struggle between emotion and intellect.