Lord Lansmere, nevertheless, was but little known in the circles of London.

He lived chiefly on his estates, occupying himself with the various duties of a great proprietor, and when he came to the metropolis, it was rather to save than to spend; so that he could afford to give his son a very ample allowance, when Harley, at the age of sixteen (having already attained to the sixth form at Eton), left school for one of the regiments of the Guards.
Few knew what to make of Harley L'Estrange,--and that was, perhaps, the reason why he was so much thought of.

He had been by far the most brilliant boy of his time at Eton,--not only the boast of the cricket-ground, but the marvel of the schoolroom; yet so full of whims and oddities, and seeming to achieve his triumphs with so little aid from steadfast application, that he had not left behind him the same expectations of solid eminence which his friend and senior, Audley Egerton, had excited.

His eccentricities, his quaint sayings, and out-of-the-way actions, became as notable in the great world as they had been in the small one of a public school.

That he was very clever there was no doubt, and that the cleverness was of a high order might be surmised, not only from the originality but the independence of his character.