'Stray Pearls: Memoirs of Margaret De Ribaumont, Viscountess of Bellaise' is a novel written by Charlotte M. Yonge. The story begins by introducing us to the protagonist, an English woman who was born in Walwyn House, Dorsetshire. Her father fell in love with a French widow and brought her home, where she was welcomed by the grandmother who was also French. The narrator and her brother Eustace were left under their grandmother's care in the country while their parents were at court. The narrator was brought up as a Catholic and went to church with her mother, who was one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber of Queen Henrietta Maria. When she was sixteen, she was told that she was to go to France to marry.