MR.

SCARBOROUGH.
It will be necessary, for the purpose of my story, that I shall go back more than once from the point at which it begins, so that I may explain with the least amount of awkwardness the things as they occurred, which led up to the incidents that I am about to tell; and I may as well say that these first four chapters of the book--though they may be thought to be the most interesting of them all by those who look to incidents for their interest in a tale--are in this way only preliminary.
The world has not yet forgotten the intensity of the feeling which existed when old Mr.Scarborough declared that his well-known eldest son was not legitimate.

Mr.Scarborough himself had not been well known in early life.

He had been the only son of a squire in Staffordshire over whose grounds a town had been built and pottery-works established.

In this way a property which had not originally been extensive had been greatly increased in value, and Mr.Scarborough, when he came into possession, had found himself to be a rich man.