popular, beloved, respected, with all the good things the world could
give. The first blow upon him was the death of his wife. That hurt him
sorely, but it did not quite crush him. Then his only daughter died
also, just as she became a bride. High as the Lady Blanche Neville
had stood herself, she had married almost above her rank, and her
father's heart had been full of joy and pride. But she had perished
childless,--in child-birth, and again he was hurt almost to death. There
was still left to him a son,--a youth indeed thoughtless, lavish, and
prone to evil pleasures. But thought would come with years; for almost
any lavishness there were means sufficient; and evil pleasures might
cease to entice. The young Lord Neville was all that was left to the
Earl, and for his heir he paid debts and forgave injuries. The young
man would marry and all might be well. Then he found a bride for his
boy,--with no wealth, but owning the best blood in the kingdom, beautiful,
good, one who might be to him as another daughter. His boy's answer was
that he was already married! He had chosen his wife from out of the
streets, and offered to the Earl of Scroope as a child to replace the
daughter who had gone, a wretched painted prostitute from France. After
that Lord Scroope never again held up his head.

The father would not see his heir,--and never saw him again. As to what
money might be needed, the lawyers in London were told to manage that.
The Earl himself would give nothing and refuse nothing. When there were
debts,--debts for the second time, debts for the third time, the lawyers
were instructed to do what in their own eyes seemed good to them. They
might pay as long as they deemed it right to pay, but they might not
name Lord Neville to his father.

While things were thus the Earl married again,--the penniless daughter
of a noble house,--a woman not young, for she was forty when he married