A reclusive professor devoted to writing a philosophical treatise on controlling one's emotions is persistently interrupted in his bolted study by the domestic chaos surrounding him. He serves as reluctant guardian to his orphaned nephew Piers and niece Nellie, a pretty heiress of twenty thousand pounds. Having invited an elderly spinster cousin, Lavinia, to chaperon Nellie, the professor quietly schemes to marry the two young people to each other, thereby unburdening himself of responsibility and reclaiming his peaceful scholarly life. Piers has long been devoted to Nellie, but she treats his affections carelessly, responding to his marriage proposal with indecision. Stung, he announces his departure. Before matters resolve, two distant cousins arrive unexpectedly from Spain: Guy Harley, strikingly handsome but essentially mercenary, and his sister Beatrix, a vivacious, energetic woman in her thirties who immediately takes the household by storm. She charms the professor out of his study with ease, escorts him on drives, and transforms his irritable domestic manner, to the considerable annoyance of Nellie, who resents being overshadowed. Beatrix, perceptive and warmhearted, swiftly assesses the romantic landscape. She correctly identifies that Piers is too submissive with Nellie and advises him to feign devoted attention toward herself instead, creating jealousy through an elaborate pretended flirtation. She also nudges the professor toward recognising Cousin Lavinia's quiet worth, and plants a gentle suggestion in Lavinia's mind that leads the spinster to invest new hope in her domestic future. Meanwhile, Guy, calculating and shallow, eyes Nellie's fortune with obvious interest, and Nellie, stung by jealousy over Beatrix's apparent hold on Piers, finds herself drawn into a flirtatious game with Guy. On New Year's Eve, Nellie proposes moonlight skating on the pond. Cousin Lavinia forbids it on propriety grounds. That night in the library Nellie discovers a scrap of paper bearing only the words "At twelve tonight" in small cramped handwriting, which she assumes to be a secret assignation arranged by Beatrix for Piers. Wanting to spoil whatever plot she imagines is afoot without appearing jealous, Nellie anonymously slides the note under Guy's smoking-room door. Guy, whose thoughts have been full of Nellie's fortune, instantly assumes the note is from Nellie herself and is delighted by her supposed boldness. Beatrix, encountering Guy and the note, quickly grasps the confusion but is not entirely certain of its true origin. In a spirit of mischievous experiment, she resolves to print identical notes and slide them under every door in the house, reasoning that each recipient will interpret the message according to their own private hopes, thereby revealing the true direction of their feelings. She delivers the notes in turn to Cousin Lavinia, to the professor, and to Piers, each time accompanying it with a sharp rap. The results are comically revealing. Cousin Lavinia, convinced the summons is a romantic overture from the professor, dresses herself in a thirty-year-old ball gown of white tarlatan trimmed with blush roses and a vast crinoline she has preserved in lavender since her single youthful appearance at a ball. The professor, equally convinced the note is from Beatrix, whom he has misread as harbouring tender feelings for him, retrieves a worn velvet cap from a drawer, not noticing it is inside out, and prepares to meet what he imagines will be a proposal of matrimonial alliance. Piers, certain the note is from Nellie and signals her desire for reconciliation, writes her a loving reply and slips it under her door, calling her name softly in the corridor. Nellie, receiving this tender letter, is moved. She descends to the hall, where Piers springs from a moonlit window recess to take her hands, and the two are reconciled in the silvery light. Mattie the maid, meanwhile, has been concealing herself in a dark corner of the hall, having arranged with her sweetheart Dick, a groom from the neighbouring estate, to slip away to a servants' ball where they are to dance together at midnight. Beatrix watches from a shadowed corner as the hall fills with these converging figures. She then turns the gaslight to full brightness, illuminating the scene: Piers and Nellie reunited, Cousin Lavinia in her extraordinary antiquated costume, and the professor in his inside-out cap, both emerging simultaneously from opposite ends of the upstairs gallery carrying night-lights. Guy, descending the stairs and taking in the scene, quietly retreats. Beatrix reveals she is herself engaged to a man in London, to whom she has been promised for ten years, setting the professor straight on his misconception. She seats herself at the piano, calls for Dick to be fetched, and strikes up Sir Roger de Coverley. As the village church bells ring in the New Year, three couples take the floor: Piers and Nellie at the top of the room, Mattie and Dick at the bottom, and the professor and Cousin Lavinia in the middle. At the stroke of midnight, as the old dance fills the hall, Nellie receives her first kiss from Piers.
By Catherine Louisa Pirkis · First published 1881 · Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Victorian Fiction · 3 chapters