CHAPTER II.
FRED NEVILLE.
When Fred Neville first came to the Manor, the old Earl trembled when called upon to receive him.

Of the lad he had heard almost nothing,--of his appearance literally nothing.

It might be that his heir would be meanly visaged, a youth of whom he would have cause to be ashamed, one from whose countenance no sign of high blood would shine out; or, almost worse, he also might have that look, half of vanity, and half of vice, of which the father had gradually become aware in his own son, and which in him had degraded the Neville beauty.

But Fred, to look at, was a gallant fellow,--such a youth as women love to see about a house,--well-made, active, quick, self-asserting, fair-haired, blue-eyed, short-lipped, with small whiskers, thinking but little of his own personal advantages, but thinking much of his own way.

As far as the appearance of the young man went the Earl could not but be satisfied.
And to him, at any rate in this, the beginning of their connexion, Fred Neville was modest and submissive.