the youngest of the three Englishmen and the embodiment of
geniality. He was a blond of the purest type, and his beard,
parted in the centre, was brushed back in two wavy, silken masses,
while his clear blue eyes, beaming with kindliness and good-humor,
had the frankness of a child's.

Hugh Mainwaring, the sole heir to the family estate, soon after
the death of his father, some twenty-five years previous to this
time, became weary of the monotony of his English homelife, and,
resolved upon making his permanent home in one of the large eastern
cities of the United States and embarking upon the uncertain and
treacherous seas of speculation in the western world, had sold the
estate which for a number of generations had been in the possession
of the Mainwarings, and had come to America. In addition to his
heavy capital, he had invested a large amount of keen business tact
and ability; his venture had met with almost phenomenal success and
he had acquired immense wealth besides his inherited fortune.

His more conservative cousin, Ralph Mainwaring, while never quite
forgiving him for having disposed of the estate, had, nevertheless,
with the shrewdness and foresight for which his family were noted,
given to his only son the name of Hugh Mainwaring, confident that
his American-English cousin would never marry, and hoping thereby
to win back the old Mainwaring estate into his own line of the
family. His bit of strategy had succeeded; and now, after more
than twenty years, his foresight and worldly wisdom were about to
be rewarded, for the occasion of this reunion between the
long-separated cousins was the celebration of the rapidly
approaching fiftieth birthday of Hugh Mainwaring, at which time
Hugh Mainwaring, Jr., would attain his majority, and in recognition