vain, Sir Rowland Blake, fresh from London and in full flight from
his creditors, flashed like a comet into the Bridgwater heavens. He
dazzled the eyes and might have had for the asking the heart and hand
of Diana Horton - Ruth's cousin. Her heart, indeed, he had without
the asking, for Diana fell straightway in love with him and showed it,
just as he showed that he was not without response to her affection.
There were some tender passages between them; but Blake, for all his
fine exterior, was a beggar, and Diana far from rich, and so he rode
his feelings with a hard grip upon the reins. And then, in an evil
hour for poor Diana, young Westmacott had taken him to Lupton House,
and Sir Rowland had his first glimpse of Ruth, his first knowledge
of her fortune. He went down before Ruth's eyes like a man of heart;
he went down more lowly still before her possessions like a man of
greed; and poor Diana might console herself with whom she could.

Her brother watched him, appraised him, and thought that in this broken
gamester he had a man after his own heart; a man who would be ready
enough for such a bargain as Richard had in mind; ready enough to sell
what rags might be left him of his honour so that he came by the
wherewithal to mend his broken fortunes.

The twain made terms. They haggled like any pair of traders out of
Jewry, but in the end it was settled - by a bond duly engrossed and
sealed - that on the day that Sir Rowland married Ruth he should make
over to her brother certain values that amounted to perhaps a quarter
of her possessions. There was no cause to think that Ruth would be
greatly opposed to this - not that that consideration would have
weighed with Richard.

But now that all essentials were so satisfactorily determined a vexation