He was wealthy, had a fine house, servants, a wife and children, and he disappeared.

There was no getting away from that.
"Mr.Francis Morton lived with his wife in one of the large houses in Sussex Square at the Kemp Town end of Brighton.

Mrs.Morton was well known for her Americanisms, her swagger dinner parties, and beautiful Paris gowns.

She was the daughter of one of the many American millionaires (I think her father was a Chicago pork-butcher), who conveniently provide wealthy wives for English gentlemen; and she had married Mr.Francis Morton a few years ago and brought him her quarter of a million, for no other reason but that she fell in love with him.

He was neither good-looking nor distinguished, in fact, he was one of those men who seem to have CITY stamped all over their person.
"He was a gentleman of very regular habits, going up to London every morning on business and returning every afternoon by the 'husband's train.' So regular was he in these habits that all the servants at the Sussex Square house were betrayed into actual gossip over the fact that on Wednesday, March 17th, the master was not home for dinner.