Magdalena Vanstone and her sister Norah learn the true meaning of social stigma in Victorian England only after the traumatic discovery that their dearly beloved parents, whose sudden deaths have left them orphans, were not married at the time of their birth. Disinherited by law and brutally ousted from Comb-Raven, the idyllic country estate which has been their peaceful home since childhood, the two young women are left to fend for fend for themselves. This edition also consists of Introduction, Notes on the Text, Bibliography, A Chronology of the Author and Explanatory Notes.