The Hand of Ethelberta by Thomas Hardy, Fiction, Literary, Short Stories

Ethelberta Chickerel is the daughter of a lady's maid, who forms a liaison with a knight's son who promptly dies. His mother reconciles to Ethelberta, has her educated and brought into society, and then dies herself, leaving Ethelberta the townhouse and nothing else. She must make her way in the world by her wits, with the native instincts of a girl of the lower classes underlying the veneer of sophistication, as she attempts to secure her future.