who had made a sufficient fortune in business, has retired to this
country seat, which stands upon the site of a humbler dwelling where
George had been born and spent his earliest years. The old home of his
youth had subsequently passed into the hands of a man of means, who had
added to it, improved the surroundings, and turned it into a modern and
elegant villa. It was again in the market when George was seeking a
retreat for his old age, and he purchased it--glad, even under the
altered conditions, to live again among the loved surroundings of his
childhood.

George has a half-brother, Richard, much younger than himself. They are
the children of the same mother who, some years after her first
widowhood, had married an Irish gentleman, of mercurial habit, by whom
she had this second child. George had already left home to earn his
living, with the consequence that the two brothers had scarcely ever met
until the occasion upon which the story opens. Richard, after first
trying the sea as a profession, had entered the army during the war with
Napoleon; distinguished himself in the Peninsula; and finally returned
to his native country, covered with glory and enjoying a modest
pension. He woos and wins the daughter of a country clergyman, marries,
and finds a young family growing up around him. He is filled with a
desire to resume friendly relations with his half-brother George, but is
deterred from making the first advances. George, hearing of this through
a common friend, cordially responds, and Richard is invited to spend a
few weeks at Binning Hall. The two brothers, whose bringing up had been
so different, and whose ideas and politics were far removed,
nevertheless find their mutual companionship very pleasant, and every
evening over their port wine relate their respective adventures and
experiences, while George has also much to tell of his friends and
neighbours around him. The clergyman of the parish, a former fellow of