58 The Devil Defeated

After the death of the kindly old Earl of Yardecombe, Oscar the brash and pleasure-seeking new Earl seems to care little for the people of the Parish – let alone for the plight of young Dorina Stanfield, her widowed father and their impoverished family at the rundown Vicarage. Dorina’s opinion of this raffish gentleman is lower still when she hears of lewd goings-on with his flamboyant friends at the ‘Big House’. Confronting his Lordship, Dorina is stunned to find him chastened by her accusation