Abstract:
Matthew Dobbs is orphaned at age 4 and grows up in Norfolk, England, over 1899-1912. A highly intelligent, claustrophobic outsider, he enrolls at the University of London after meeting the elder daughter of a Baronet. They become engaged but World War I breaks out and she marries someone else. He graduates and enters the Army, does well as an infantry officer and captures a valise full of loot while on a mission. After the war, he meets the younger daughter, a nurse, marries her and with her help becomes headmaster of a public school.