The Widowed Bride

This issue of The Select Series (No. 75, January 7, 1891) contains the serialized novel The Widowed Bride; or, The Mystery of Glenhampton by Lucy Randall Comfort, author of "Cecille's Marriage" and "Gratia's Trials." The story begins in the Kentish countryside along the Medway River, where an elderly man named Jason Garfield travels with two young girls, Alice and Rena, apparently his granddaughters. The narrative establishes mystery through Garfield's cryptic internal monologue—he wrestles with returning to his native region after long absence, troubled by an undisclosed secret he intends to reveal before death. The opening presents a domestic melodrama centered on family secrets, inheritance, and moral redemption, with gothic undertones suggested by the "mystery" in the title.