Steps
IT
his is the story you mistook yours to be:
A widower, unable to bear his solitude, courts a woman with two daughters of her own. She accepts his offer of marriage and moves into his large house, for the man’s wealth and business acumen were undisturbed by the loss of his wife. There the woman meets the widower’s daughter. They get along as well as fingernails across a writing board. As their feud escalates, the woman’s daughters get involved in small cruelties, while the widower distances himself from his own daughter (for her, a greater cruelty). A ball is announced and all the women in the household attend, except for the widower’s daughter who is kept in abeyance by some onerous household chore. She manages to leave the house, however, and, dressed in a wondrous ensemble, att
