Polite Paradise

Poesie, that is similar to "Moonraker's Bride" but not exactly.  She is an orphan of British missionaries, not mixed parentage, and the marriage occurs for a different reason. 

I think prety much all of Brent's characters were orphans which of course makes them more vulnerable to nefarious schemes.  I really like Capricorn's Daughter because it details the plight of a penniless (but formerly wealthy) young woman trying to make a living in London, and also has some interesting background info about the vaudeville scene in those days.

Speaking of China, in MM Kaye's autobiography she mentions that her parents traveled through China shortly after they were married, and her father once said he had an indelible mental image of her mother walking naked ahead of him into a river or lake or something at dawn -- this would've been around 1900 or earlier -- we always think of people of that era as so modest but apparently skinny-dipping on one's honeymoon was not unheard of!  Even for a lady of the gentry. I really enjoyed the detail and historical info in Kaye's non-fiction books.