The Serpent's Tooth by B.M. Croker

‘Maythorne,' where Mrs. Glyn -- formerly Blagdon -- had hidden her diminished head, was a fine old red-brick mansion standing in its own grounds and meadows, and within thirty miles of London. Once the family seat of a well-known banker, it was now the successful investment of a syndicate, and a more or less glorified hotel, boasting (in a not untruthful advertisement) of its splendid situation, salubrious air, far-famed gardens, comforts, and cows.

When Letty, fearing that her company was beginning to irk her friend, and reluctant to return to Thornby, had implored Mrs. Hesketh to find her a quiet haven, Mrs. Hesketh's friends, had recommended her to Maythorne. In late spring and early summer, the Maythorne guests were dull and commonplace: various invalids, lame, blind, and halt, with their nurses; girls or boys brought for change after the usual measles or whooping cough; old maids and widows; who knitted and gossiped and paced the broad walks in couples, took tea in little coteries, and devoted their evenings to cribbage, and patience.