The House of Gow

This is the story of a Border family so depleted by the war that Janie, slight but full of character, and her weak, "ne'er-do-well" cousin Walter are left. The scenes laid in the Border town alternate between a large bookshop and an old tower in the hills. Janie's grandfather loves the shop as does Janie, but she has to live in the Tower with her grand aunt, a wealthy miser, who hates Janie but adores the weakly Walter, who has great charm. Janie is in love with Keith, the last of an ancient house, who, because of his poverty and other more dramatic reasons, conceals his love for her. The childish, passionate nature of Janie's love for Keith which develops as she grows up, throwing herself against his strength of refusal, forms the main theme of the book. Through the varied scenes, of dogs and horses and incidents of Border life, readers will love the "Little Butler," a lost child found by Keith and his helper in his bachelor establishment.