[GrannyGrump]

Here is a challenge for you:
I'm trying to find a title I read in the mid-nineties. But I got it at a book-swap and don't know when it was published. Probably no earlier than the 1970's. I don't know the author's name, but I'm quite sure the author was female. I don't remember the names of any of the characters either.

This novel took place in the Southern U.S. in the early twentieth century (or was it late nineteenth? Long dresses.). The protaganist was a young woman age 16/18 who was orphaned and nearly penniless, and turned the family home into a boarding house. She gets involved in all kinds of problems with her eccentric boarders and hired help (not "staff" and not "old family retainers"). One of the boarders was an elderly man being "warehoused" by his unloving family, who was discovered to be very wealthy and wished to use that wealth to help his young landlady, much to the family's dismay. There were, of course, two young men competing for the girl's interest. I *think* I remember that one was a poor young doctor, and the other was a wealthy southern "aristocrat".

I remember being very amused by this book. It was NOT a period romance novel, the focus was on her ludicrous misadventures.

Well, I hope that was all vague enough to do the job. I'll be back online on Monday. Maybe one of you good folks will have good news for me.

Thanks.