New Lord Whinbridge — Leslie Lance

Undaunted by past dissolutionment, Merle Heather admitted frankly that she enjoyed falling in love. This light-heart attitude exasperated her close friend Suzanna, whose husband had just left her. However, when Suzanne's old school friend, Virginia, Lady Whinbridge, asked her to go to a cottage in Dorset to look after her twins, Suzanne persuaded Merle to accompany her. Virginia's husband had just suddenly died, and she was going on a cruise to recover from the shock.

In Dorset, Merle fell for Bayard Croxton, the agent for the cottage. However, she crossed swords with both him and Suzanne when she championed the campaign started by Will, the new Lord Whinbridge, to turn Whinbridge into a bird sanctuary. Later she found Whinbridge too hot for Will. But he refused to be pushed around, and it never occurred to Merle that any girl could fall in love with such a plain, ordinary looking man.