Library's Palmer collection (PAL) copy has dustjacket; signed and inscribed by the author in blue ink, "To Nettie Palmer with affection & admiration, Leonard Mann." ANL

"This is the life-story of an unmoral woman with an appetite for power and the ability to attain it. The daughter of a man who made and lost a fortune, Andrea has to earn her living and support her mother. Her father's house is now occupied by a rising lawyer and politician, Harry Latley, and his wife Rhoda. The hatred Andrea feels for Rhoda is wickedly stimulated when Latley falls in love with Andrea, who gives birth to a son, Adrian.
Strength of will, natural ability, good fortune, and a vein of cynicism enable Andrea to become first a successful and then an extremely rich business women. Adrian, growing up, falls in love with the Latley's only child, Dorothea; and Andrea, believing that nobody but herself knows that Dorothea is Adrian's half-sister, does not oppose their marriage.
This horrible suppression of a truth that is bound to come out charges the situation with dangerous possibilities. Its consequences are disastrous. In this portrait of an unmarried matriarch, with an early eye to the main chance, a witch of finance, a formidable and unforgiving nature and moral cynic, Leonard Mann, one of Australia's leading novelists, has found full scope for his powers." -- Inside cover

Fisher Library Rare Books and Special Collections materials are available for use in the Fisher Library Rare Books and Special Collections Reading Room. Copying allowed with permission. NU