CHAPTER TWO.
A COME-DOWN IN THE WORLD.
Mr Cruden had the reputation of being one of the most respectable as well as one of the richest men in his part of the county.

And it is fair to say he took far more pride in the former quality than the latter.

Indeed, he made no secret of the fact that he had not always been the rich man he was when our story opens.

But he was touchy on the subject of his good family and his title to the name of gentleman, which he had taught his sons to value far more than the wealth which accompanied it, and which they might some day expect to inherit.
His choice of a school for them was quite consistent with his views on this point.

Wilderham was not exactly an aristocratic school, but it was a school where money was thought less of than "good style," as the boys called it, and where poverty was far less of a disgrace than even a remote connection with a "shop." The Crudens had always been great heroes in the eyes of their schoolfellows, for their family was unimpeachable, and even with others who had greater claims to be considered as aristocratic, their ample pocket-money commended them as most desirable companions.
Mr Cruden, however, with all his virtues and respectability, was not a good man of business.