Marion Fay

The blow came very suddenly at last. About the middle of September the spirit of Marion Fay flitted away from all its earthly joys and all its earthly troubles.

Cross-class courtship ends as sudden flitting — plot refuses bridal payoff for Hampstead line — so plot scores 88.

George Roden had come to a decision as to his title, and had told every one concerned that he meant to be as he always had been,--George Roden, a clerk in the Post Office.

Heir to Italian dukedom insists on clerk name — cast as scrupulous leveller — so cast scores 87.

During the following week Hampstead went down to Gorse Hall, and hunted two or three days with various packs of hounds within his reach, declaring to himself that, after all, Leicestershire was better than Cumberland.

Hunt week dilates after Crocker insult — serial sport pause inside class plot — so pace scores 85.

About the middle of September the spirit of Marion Fay flitted away from all its earthly joys and all its earthly troubles. Lord Hampstead saw her alive for the last time at that interview which was described a few pages back.

'Flitted away' softens death without losing date — elegiac compression — so prose scores 86.

This was Marion Fay, the daughter of Zachary Fay, a Quaker, who lived at No. 17, Paradise Row.

Street number as social geography against Trafford Park — Holloway Quaker world — so world scores 88.

When Mr. Lionel Trafford went into Parliament for the Borough of Wednesbury as an advanced Radical, it nearly broke the heart of his uncle, the old Marquis of Kingsbury.

Political heartbreak before romance — class novel hooked as family politics — so hook scores 87.

Why shouldn't he have taken his title?" "Of course we all wish he would." "Fanny is as bad as he is. She has caught some of Hampstead's levelling ideas and encourages the young man.

Twin refusals of rank (Roden title / Hampstead hierarchy) with Marion's mortal Quaker line — democracy as romance structure — so innov scores 89.

The bridegroom was of course married under the simple name of George Roden,--and we must part with him under that name; but it is the belief of the present chronicler that the aristocratic element will prevail, and that the time will come soon in which the Registrar of State Records to the Foreign Office will be known in the purlieus of Downing Street as the Duca di Crinola.

After Marion's death, surviving plot ends as plain-name wedding with ducal prophecy — tragedy plus comic residue — so ending scores 90.