He could not be so dishonest as to refuse to pay his father's just debts; he could not let his mother and sisters starve.

The scene of distress to which Lord Colambre was witness in this family made a still greater impression upon him than had been made by the warning or the threats of Mordicai.

The similarity between the circumstances of his friend's family and of his own struck him forcibly.
All this evil had arisen from Lady Berryl's passion for living in London and at watering-places.

She had made her husband an ABSENTEE--an absentee from his home, his affairs, his duties, and his estate.

The sea, the Irish Channel, did not, indeed, flow between him and his estate; but it was of little importance whether the separation was effected by land or water--the consequences, the negligence, the extravagance, were the same.
Of the few people of his age who are capable of profiting by the experience of others, Lord Colambre was one.