This is an charming novel, a sequel to Joan Austen-Leigh's A Visit to HIghbury. Like its predecessor, the story involves minor characters from Jane Austen's Emma, plus a others made up by the author, and told in exchanges of letters. The chief narrators are Mrs. Goddard, headmistress of a school in Highbury, and her sister, Charlotte Pinkney, in London.

In this novel, Mrs. Goddard deals with a lively pair of twins, and the situation of Miss Bates. Charlotte and her husband, try to help the father of their protegee from the last book, Charlotte Gordon Marlow, as he attempts to convince the bureaucracy that he is in fact alive. In addition, Mr. Pinkney's niece Sophy Adams, has come from the West Indies to acquire polish and, hopefully, a distinguished husband in London.

It is the link to Emma that brought these novels to my attention, but they are generally independent, although respectful, of Jane Austen's work. I enjoy them as independent stories, and I was genuinely sorry to see that there are no more sequels, as I had become very fond of the sisters and their world. ( )