Maurice Reynard brings us a tale of avarice, homicide, and warped sexual proclivity in this tale from the soot and smog bound London of the 1890's, as a man marries an older and wealthy widow in search of an easy life. Only to find he has committed himself to a woman whose tastes in men run to those with a potential for obedience - even if that obedience is the last thing they wish to give her. For the dashing, idle, and egocentric Wilson Fenway the older widow, made free by the death of her affluent husband to pursue her true sexual inclinations, seems a perfect match for his desire to live a life of affluence and luxury his own talents are ill-equipped to provide him. And finds instead a woman not only intent on controlling his every action but, with the assistance of her loyal to a fault housekeeper, Elspeth, more than capable of achieving her aims. Creating in the process a growingly emasculated former man-about-town who comes to the conclusion there is only one way to end his marriage of obedience and humiliation if he wishes to keep the social standing he married her to achieve while eradicating the woman providing it from his life. An aim in which he is successful. At least until he is confronted with his crime by the now late-wife's housekeeper. A housekeeper, he is about to learn, with not only has evidence of his crime but is every bit as controlling and deviant as her former mistress. And intends to take on exactly the same role in his life but with only one difference. They will not be married! This is part-one of a two-part story, of which the concluding part will follow shortly.