vowed that she and her John should there commence housekeeping.

All these explanations are tedious, but necessary; and furthermore,
it must be said, that as John's uncle's partner was the Liberal
member for Oldborough, so Lucy's uncle was its Ministerial
representative.

This gentleman, the brother of the deceased Captain Gorgon, lived at
the paternal mansion of Gorgon Castle, and rejoiced in the name and
title of Sir George Grimsby Gorgon.

He, too, like his younger brother, had married a lady beneath his
own rank in life; having espoused the daughter and heiress of Mr.
Hicks, the great brewer at Oldborough, who held numerous mortgages
on the Gorgon property, all of which he yielded up, together with
his daughter Juliana, to the care of the baronet.

What Lady Gorgon was in character, this history will show. In
person, if she may be compared to any vulgar animal, one of her
father's heavy, healthy, broad-flanked, Roman-nosed white
dray-horses might, to the poetic mind, appear to resemble her. At
twenty she was a splendid creature, and though not at her full
growth, yet remarkable for strength and sinew; at forty-five she was
as fine a woman as any in His Majesty's dominions. Five feet seven
in height, thirteen stone, her own teeth and hair, she looked as if
she were the mother of a regiment of Grenadier Guards. She had
three daughters of her own size, and at length, ten years after the
birth of the last of the young ladies, a son--one son--George
Augustus Frederick Grimsby Gorgon, the godson of a royal duke, whose
steady officer in waiting Sir George had been for many years.