At that time Lord Chiltern's career had still been open to hope,--and the one man had contrasted his lot with the other.

General Effingham lived long enough to hear the Earl declare that his lot was the happier of the two.

Now the General was dead, and Violet, the daughter of a second wife, was all that was left of the Effinghams.

This second wife had been a Miss Plummer, a lady from the city with much money, whose sister had married Lord Baldock.

Violet in this way had fallen to the care of the Baldock people, and not into the hands of her father's friends.