Title: An old man's love
Description: Fifty-year-old William Whittlestaff becomes guardian to Mary Lawrie, the orphaned and penniless daughter of an old friend, and gradually finds himself falling in love with her. But Mary has already given her heart to the young John Gordon who has gone to seek his fortune in the Kimberley diamond fields. Gordon's sudden return after a three years' absence, on the very day of Whittlestaff's proposal, precipitates a crisis at the center of the story. An old man's love is Trollope's last complete novel, finished seven months before his death.