"Where on earth does your nephew get his money ?" men said to John Vavasor at his club.

"Upon my word I don't know," said Vavasor.
"He doesn't get it from me, and I'm sure he doesn't get it from my father." But George Vavasor, though he failed at Chelsea, did not spend his money altogether fruitlessly.

He gained reputation by the struggle, and men came to speak of him as though he were one who would do something.

He was a stockbroker, a thorough-going Radical, and yet he was the heir to a fine estate, which had come down from father to son for four hundred years! There was something captivating about his history and adventures, especially as just at the time of the election he became engaged to an heiress, who died a month before the marriage should have taken place.

She died without a will, and her money all went to some third cousins.
George Vavasor bore this last disappointment like a man, and it was at this time that he again became fully reconciled to his cousin.
Previous to this they had met; and Alice, at her cousin Kate's instigation, had induced her father to meet him.