When Mathilda is 16, her father writes a letter, announcing that he is to return. From the first moment father and daughter have a warm relationship, and Mathilda can't be happier to have her father's love. When her aunt dies, they go to London, where they enjoy its society, but Mathilda only cares about her father. When a young man starts showing interest in Mathilda, her father's attitude changes and he becomes taciturn, stiff and unloving. Mathilda is miserable, wondering what has happened. Then her father decides to take her to the house where her mother died, but the situation is the same. When Mathilda confronts him, the man confesses that he has unfatherly feelings towards her, and even though he has tried to drown those feelings, they won't die.
Mathilda is horrified and cries in her room, and that morning a servant tells her that her father is gone and has left a letter for her. In the letter he explains everything that he couldn't tell her. Mathilda fears for her father's life, and accompanied by a steward, they follow him. They reach a cottage after many hours travelling, and they find him dead. He has taken his own life.
Mathilda spends some time in London in the company of female relatives, but she has lost her wish to live. Then she moves and settles in quite an isoltated place with just a female servant. Then after two years, she starts to perk up, and then she meets a poet, Woodville. Mathilda describes the man as perfection, and tells us about his sad story. He was in love with Elinor, a rich heiress, but she died.
I have to say that the topic developed in this novel between father and daughter is very difficul and the author was brave to include this matter.
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