He was a younger son, and not possessed of any large fortune.

Politics, as a profession, was, therefore, of importance to him.

He had in early life married a sister of Mr.
Sowerby; and as the lady was some six or seven years older than himself, and had brought with her but a scanty dowry, people thought that in this matter Mr.Harold Smith had not been perspicacious.
Mr.Harold Smith was not personally a popular man with any party, though some judged him to be eminently useful.

He was laborious, well-informed, and, on the whole, honest; but he was conceited, long-winded, and pompous.
Mrs.Harold Smith was the very opposite of her lord.

She was a clever, bright woman, good-looking for her time of life--and she was now over forty--with a keen sense of the value of all worldly things, and a keen relish for all the world's pleasures.