It is he who is to be our favourite young man, to do the love scenes, to have his trials and his difficulties, and to win through them or not, as the case may be.

I am too old now to be a hard-hearted author, and so it is probable that he may not die of a broken heart.

Those who don't approve of a middle-aged bachelor country doctor as a hero, may take the heir to Greshamsbury in his stead, and call the book, if it so please them, "The Loves and Adventures of Francis Newbold Gresham the Younger." And Master Frank Gresham was not ill adapted for playing the part of a hero of this sort.

He did not share his sisters' ill-health, and though the only boy of the family, he excelled all his sisters in personal appearance.

The Greshams from time immemorial had been handsome.