Mazo de la Roche 
Mary Wakefield 

First published in 1949, in
Mary Wakefield, the third book in the Jalna series, a young English woman is hired by Ernest Whiteoak to be a governess to Philip’s motherless children. When Philip falls in love with her, his mother does all she can to prevent the marriage. This is book 3 of 16 in
The Whiteoak Chronicles. It is followed by Young Renny
.

About the author

Mazo de la Roche was an impoverished writer in Toronto when in 1927 she won a $10, 000 prize from the American magazine Atlantic Monthly for her novel Jalna. The book became an immediate bestseller. She went on to publish sixteen novels in the popular series.