OFF THE BRIDGE AND INTO THE SEINE A life was in the balance. Twenty-one year old Annette perched on the rail of the Paris bridge, thinking of plunging into the surging, angry Seine River, and ending her misery by ending her life. But then, the eccentric, rich Englishman named Dick Le Geyt happened by and convinced her that life with him was better than drowning. Though he later gives her wedding ring to keep up appearances, he does not marry her. But then Dick Le Geyt, falls very ill and dies, making Annette swear not to try and kill herself. But before he dies, Dick asks her to sign a hasty will that may spell doom to Annette's hopes of future happiness and the love of a man named Roger. When Dick dies, she inherits a true friend, Mrs. Stoddart, who cared for him. But Annette also inherits the threat of awful scandal!

Author Biography

Mary Cholmondeley (1859 - 1925) was an English novelist. She began writing with serious intent in her teens. She wrote in her journal in 1877, "What a pleasure and interest it would be to me in life to write books. I must strike out a line of some kind, and if I do not marry (for at best that is hardly likely, as I possess neither beauty nor charms) I should want some definite occupation, besides the home duties." She succeeded in publishing some stories in The Graphic and elsewhere. Her first novel was The Danvers Jewels (1887), a detective story that won her a small following. It appeared in the Temple Bar magazine published by Richard Bentley, after fellow novelist Rhoda Broughton had introduced her to George Bentley. It was followed by Sir Charles Danvers (1889), Diana Tempest (1893) and A Devotee (1897). The satirical Red Pottage (1899) was a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic and is reprinted occasionally. It satirizes religious hypocrisy and the narrowness of country life and was denounced from a London pulpit as immoral. It was equally sensational because it "explored the issues of female sexuality and vocation, recurring topics in late-Victorian debates about the New Women." Despite the book's great success, however, the author received little money for it because she had sold the copyright.