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In the novel Sad Cypress, Sir Lewis Rycroft was married to a woman who was confined to a mental asylum. The law at the time did not allow divorce in the case of insanity on the part of one party and moreover, his wife was in excellent health and could live to a ripe old age. When he fell in love with Laura Welman, herself a widow, they had no choice but to conduct a discreet love affair. This resulted in a daughter, Mary, but he died in the Great War before she was born.

Sir Lewis was depicted in a photograph which Mrs Welman kept in the tallboy in her bedroom. Nurse O'Brien later saw the same photograph on the piano at Laborough Court, and learned from the butler that Sir Lewis was Lady Rattery's brother, and had lived not far from there.

According to Mrs Slattery, Sir Lewis lived at Forbes Park, and had served in the War in the 17th Lancers.

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