Excerpt from The Curious and Diverting Adventures of Sir John Sparrow Bart
The past year it had been freely gossiped in the dale (to the misery of other spinsters before whom Sir John languished) that these two, the little baronet and the beautiful widow, were trembling on the verge of matrimony.
Edward Harold Begbie (1871–1929), also known as Harold Begbie, was an English author and journalist who published nearly 50 books and poems and contributed to periodicals. Besides studies of the Christian religion, he wrote numerous other books, including political satire, comedy, fiction, science fiction, plays and poetry. Begbie was born in 1871, the fifth son of Mars Hamilton Begbie, rector of Fornham, St. Martin, Suffolk; he died in London on 8 October 1929.