sensation and best seller though she is shocked to find herself viciously savaged by reviewers. Determined to prove them wrong she immediately starts writing a new novel. By the time Angel is in her early 20s she has achieved massive financial success through critical praise eludes her. She has her mother retire and moves them to the genteel countryside, a move which causes their parent-child relationship to be inverted as Mrs. Deverell becomes afraid of incurring her daughter's wrath. Angel begins to feel something is missing in her life and longs to fall in love. Shortly after she invites Lord Norley, a local patron, to tea and meets his niece and nephew, Nora Howe-Nevinson, a poet and fan who worships Angel, and Esmé Howe-Nevinson, an amateur painter. Despite their brief meeting Angel decides she is in love with Esmé and is disappointed when he fails to contact her again. In order to entrap Esmé, Angel mentions Nora in an interview as an inspiration to her work. Some months later, after her mother has died, Nora comes to pay her respects to Angel. She moves in as a companion for Angel, but nevertheless fails to materialize her brother. When Angel is 30 she at last learns that Esmé, after years spent abroad in disgrace, has moved to London. She moves there temporarily and commissions him to paint a portrait of her. Despite Angel's wilfulness and vanity, Esmé correctly guesses that she is quite lonely. In contrast to her tendency towards opulence he paints Angel realistically. At the end of the summer he visits Angel at her country home. Together they visit Paradise House, the old mansion where Angel's aunt Lottie used to work and which spurred Angel's fantasies. Angel decides to buy the house and Esmé confesses his love for her. The two marry. Though Angel fails to realize it, their marriage does not have an auspicious start. Near the beginning of World War I Esmé decides to enlist, much to Angel's disapproval. She begins writing anti-war screeds and for the first time her books begin to fail, landing her in financial difficulties. On a trip to London, Nora discovers that Esmé is back on leave but is having an affair which she keeps a secret from Angel. By 1918 Esmé, wounded in the war, returns to Angel and Paradise House, now deeply dispirited and unable to paint. He begins to