Dorita Fairlie Bruce is most well known for her school series featuring Dimsie but this book is the last in a series set in Colmskirk (Largs), a coastal town to the south-west of Glasgow. The first five books are historical, and I haven't read them, but the last four are set in modern times (that is, the 1950's when they were written) and deal with girls who have left school and need careers. The heroine of this one, Primula Mary Beton, gets a job as curator of the new museum in Colmskirk and she employs Bethia Fairgreave, who has had to leave school early and suddenly at sixteen, as her companion-housekeeper. Although the idea of women having careers other than marriage and motherhood is no longer unusual it still seem to be expected that the preferred outcome is for marriage and domesticity after a few years of paid employment. Primula Mary doesn't even last a year as curator in Colmskirk before marrying her rival for the job. Of course she then has to give up her job and stay at home but fortunately she can hand it over to her new husband! ( )