An Old Chester Secret

"Margaret Deland gives us the rare pleasure of going back to Old Chester with Doctor Lavendar, Willie King and many other familiar figures. The problem which 'An Old Chester Secret' presents is that of the conflict between a jealous and passionate love for an unacknowledged child and a conventional and lifelong dread of the scandal which the truth would precipitate." -Publishers Weekly, Volume 98, Part 1, July 3, 1920

An Old Chester Secret is the story of the growth of a...
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"Margaret Deland gives us the rare pleasure of going back to Old Chester with Doctor Lavendar, Willie King and many other familiar figures. The problem which 'An Old Chester Secret' presents is that of the conflict between a jealous and passionate love for an unacknowledged child and a conventional and lifelong dread of the scandal which the truth would precipitate." -Publishers Weekly, Volume 98, Part 1, July 3, 1920

An Old Chester Secret is the story of the growth of a mother's love for the child she had disowned. How this love came, all unbidden; how the child, grown to a splendid manhood, sat in judgment on his parents, and how he weighed their belated feeling against the love, which gave everything and asked nothing, of 'little Miss Lydia,' make a story as dramatic and appealing as any Mrs. Deland has ever written.

In these stories Mrs. Deland has immortalized the little Pennsylvania town of Manchester where she was born. They comprise a mild and smooth running tale of village life with some deepening of interest around the central figures of Miss Lydia, the gallant "little wet hen," and the boy Johnny, whom she mothers when his parents forsake him.