Mary Cholmondeley (8 June 1859 – 15 July 1925) was an English novelist. Her best-selling novel, Red Pottage, satirised religious hypocrisy and the narrowness of country life. First published in 1893, "Diana Tempest" was one of Mary Cholmondeley's most popular novels. Part sensation novel, part romance, part 'New Woman' novel, "Diana Tempest" remains a thrilling story. When Mr. Tempest dies, the family fortune and estate pass to his son, John, whom everyone except John himself knows to be illegitimate. Colonel Tempest, his spendthrift son Archie, and his beautiful daughter Diana find themselves cut off, and Colonel Tempest is bitterly resentful.
One night, in a drunken stupor, he agrees to a bet, by which he will pay 10,000 if he should ever succeed to the Tempest estate. By the time he realizes that the effect of this wager was to place a bounty on John's head, it is too late-and attempts begin to be made on John's life!