[Barsetshire 12] • Growing Up

As war drags on, Beliers Priory in East Barsetshire, home to Sir Harry and Lady Waring, becomes a convalescent hospital for soldiers as well as home to their niece Leslie, and Capt. Noel and Lydia Merton from West Barsetshire. Romance proceeds apace "upstairs" as well as "downstairs," where a trio of followers is pursuing Selina, the housemaid, with eventually a most suitable conclusion. But the stationmaster whose son is a POW in Germany, Tommy Needham's amputated arm, and everyone's uncertainty about absent friends and relatives form somber counterpoints to the general attitude of "soldiering on." As Lydia observes: they are "growing up."