reality. – What reality, father? – Daisy asked. – That you were not made for the British aristocracy. I obtained a low rate of return on my investment in your search for a husband. Do you know what that means, Daisy? – That I am a bad investment? – Daisy tried to guess. No one would guess that Daisy was a 22-year-old girl. Small, slender, and dark-haired, she still had the agility and exuberance of a child, while other women had already become sensible matrons. Sitting with her legs draped over the seat, she looked like a porcelain doll abandoned in the corner of the sofa. It irritated Bowman to see his daughter holding a book in her lap, one finger marking the page. She obviously couldn't wait for him to finish speaking so she could resume reading. "Put that down," he ordered. "Yes, Father." Surreptitiously, Daisy opened the book to see the page number and put it aside. The small gesture irritated Bowman. Books... The mere sight of a book had come to represent his daughter's shameful failure on the marriage market. Drawing on a large cigar, Bowman sat in an upholstered chair in the hotel suite they had occupied for more than two years. His wife, Mercedes, was perched in a high-backed wicker chair. Bowman was a large man, as intimidating in his physical size as in his manner. Although he was bald, he had a thick mustache, as if all the energy needed to grow hair had been channeled into his upper lip. At the time of their marriage, Mercedes had been extraordinarily thin. Over the years she had become even thinner, like a bar of soap being whittled down to a thin strip. Her straight black hair was always tied back. The sleeves of her dresses were tightly fitted to tiny cuffs that were so thin they could have been snapped like birch twigs. Even when she sat still, she exuded a nervous energy. Bowman had never regretted choosing Mercedes as his wife. Her iron ambition matched his perfectly. She was a tough, shrewd woman, always seeking a place for the Bowmans in high society. It was Mercedes who had insisted on taking her daughters to England.