“Whatever you do, don't marry a doctor,” Dorinda Manson counselled her daughter Leonie. But that didn't stop Leonie marrying Robbie Brydene, the local vet. Dorinda would have done better to advise her, "when you marry, keep away from your mother's apron-strings." For when Leonie's marriage ran into trouble it did not occur to her that her mother's continual 'help' and financial assistance had caused the trouble.