Family Gathering — Elizabeth Cadell

Natalie Rome, timid and retiring, discovers that a new life at forty is not, after all, as difficult an achievement as she had feared. With new relations and a new home, she finds security and happiness. She also finds a step-daughter as timid as herself and a step-son of exceptional charm; a mother-in-law in garden boots and ancient, formal hats who talks loudly and a great deal; and a father-in-law who seldom talks at all. Into this assembly comes Natalie's own daughter Helen; young, beautiful, successful, and supremely confident. Helen and her new step-brother enter at once into the age-old struggle between the woman who likes to organize other people's lives, and the man who prefers to arrange his own. In the lovely old house, Romescourt, the battle is fought -- and won.