The Sugar Mother Author:Elizabeth Jolley Edwin Page, a fussy and pedantic middle-aged professor, has just bid an uneasy farewell to his obstetrician wife, Cecilia, who has accepted a year's fellowship abroad. One night shortly after her departure, Edwin is disturbed by a rapping at his window, and discovers that his new neighbors, a slatternly widow and her twentyish daughter, have... more » been locked out of their house. He offers them shelter for the night, and it soon becomes clear that Leila and her determined mother have no intention of leaving. Despite himself, Edwin becomes obsessed with the daughter, and decides that Leila will serve perfectly as a surrogate mother for the childless Cecilia.« less