te of our story, he had received no accession of regular
income. Some couple of thousand of pounds had reached his hands
from his father's effects, which had helped him through some of the
immediately pressing difficulties of the day,--for his own income at
that time had been altogether dissipated. And now he had received a
much larger sum from his cousin, with an assurance, however, that the
family property would not become his when he succeeded to the family
title. He was so penniless at the time, so prone to live from hand to
mouth, so little given to consideration of the future, that it may be
doubted whether the sum given to him was not compensation in full for
all that was to be withheld from him.

Still there was his chance with the heiress! In regarding this
chance, he had very soon determined that he would marry his cousin
if it might be within his power to do so. He knew, and fully
appreciated, his own advantages. He was a handsome man,--tall for a
Hotspur, but with the Hotspur fair hair and blue eyes, and well-cut
features. There lacked, however, to him, that peculiar aspect of
firmness about the temples which so strongly marked the countenance
of Sir Harry and his daughter; and there had come upon him a _blase_
look, and certain outer signs of a bad life, which, however, did not
mar his beauty, nor were they always apparent. The eye was not always
bloodshot, nor was the hand constantly seen to shake. It may be said
of him, both as to his moral and physical position, that he was on
the edge of the precipice of degradation, but that there was yet a
possibility of salvation.

He was living in a bachelor's set of rooms, at this time, in St.
James's Street, for which, it must be presumed, that ready money was
required. During the last winter he had horses in Northamptonshire,
for the hire of which, it must be feared, that his prospects as heir
to Humblethwaite had in some degree been pawned. At the present time
he had a horse for Park riding, and he looked upon a good dinner,
with good wine, as being due to him every day, as thoroughly as
though he earned it. That he had never attempted to earn a shilling
since the day on which he had ceased to be a soldier, now four years
since, the reader will hardly require to be informed.

In spite of all his faults, this man enjoyed a certain social
popularity for which many a rich man would have given a third of his
income. Dukes and duchesses were fond of him; and certa