Jane Stanfield had made her choice between her two childhood friends, dashing Lord Langston and devoted Stephen Middleton. She had chosen to listen to Langston's impassioned proposal and turned her back on Stephen's gentle sweetness. That was before her family's ruin wrecked her marriage plans. That was before she was reduced to being paid companion to Langston's mother while Langston himself had to hunt a wealthy wife in the marriage market.