Expiation

"Millie is a recent widow, ".. at forty-five, a little cushiony woman, fair-skinned and dove-eyed ... and a smooth head, sleekly covered with agreeable hair the colour of respectability." But her steadfastly bourgeois in-laws are shocked, truly shocked by her late husband's will which leaves her only one thousand pounds and the rest of his considerable estate to a charity for " Fallen Women", and to discover that Millie has been having a very satisfactory affair for nearly ten years. A slyly humorous account of marriage in the early 20th century, as it records the frequently clueless husbands of the family and their response as they learn of Millie's unsettling behavior."--Publisher