Bleak house

Sir Leicester Dedlock and Honoria, Lady Dedlock (his junior by more than 20 years) live at his estate of Chesney Wold. Lady Dedlock is a beautiful, haughty woman who is very admired in the social world because of her good looks, fine clothes and regal bearing. Her comings and goings are considered the choicest gossip among the ?fashionable intelligence.? Unknown to Sir Leicester, Lady Dedlock had a lover, Captain Hawdon, before she married Sir Leicester ? and had a child by him, Esther Summerson. Lady Dedlock, believing her daughter is dead, has chosen to live out her days ?bored to death? as a fashionable lady of the world.