Anthony Hope 
Great Miss Driver 

The story gives a fair account of the power, or lack of power, of the vast majority of women at the time in which it is set and, in the great Miss Driver herself, demonstrates how wealth and no husband were the one recipe for a woman to have control of her own life. Finally, it shows how a decent man could love such a woman and be, if not her lover, her loving friend. (Goodreads)