Having figuratively emerged from coal to the surface, Laban Blagdon entered into country life with enthusiasm; he farmed, he supported the hounds and the Yeomanry, and sat on the Bench with commendable punctuality. His first-born was a girl. Four years later her brother arrived on this planet, amidst great rejoicings. Blagdon of Sharsley was immensely proud of his children; he had none of his father’s ideas of stern discipline, and was an extravagantly indulgent parent. In his opinion, nothing was too good for Connie and Hugo--the pair could do no wrong. Possibly his partiality was due to the fact that they were true Blagdons; large-boned, and loud of voice, exhibiting no traces whatever of their mother’s ancestry. This poor lady did her utmost to influence them, exerting herself surprisingly for a Scrope, but somehow she never became familiar with her boy and girl, who emancipated themselves as soon as they had quitted the nursery. And their mother found it difficult to believe, that this rough, boisterous, undisciplined couple, were actually her own offspring. Had they been those of other people, she would have lifted her delicate hands, and declared them to be young savages! Hugo was sent to a preparatory school, and then to Eton; he rode well, knew the points of a horse, was thoroughly at home in the stables, had a hearty laugh, a huge appetite, and his father thought him an uncommonly fine lad! As for Connie, she was the apple of Laban Blagdon’s eye; a bit of a hoyden, and no great beauty, but a girl who could stick on a horse, sing a good song, hold her own in talk, and what more did you want? The year that Connie was presented to her sovereign her father died suddenly of apoplexy, and was widely and sincerely regretted; sound to the core, a just landlord and employer, a good friend, and a generous foe. His heir was at sixteen a well-grown youth, with a thick-set figure, a strong will, rather surly manners, and an exaggerated sense of his own importance. From Eton, he went (with great reluctance) to Oxford, and there his idleness and scrapes gained him a certain amount of notoriety. As for his sister, she was launched in London Society, with considerable éclat by her mother’s aristocratic connections; Connie had no taste for balls or the usual round of gaiety, but developed an unexpected passion for racing! At Newmarket she encountered her affinity; a good-looking, graceless baronet, who had run through his patrimony on the turf, and did not bear an enviable reputation. However, in spite of all that her mother, relations, and trustees, could urge or threaten, Connie Blagdon insisted on marrying Teddy Rashleigh. She was, as her father had often declared, “a fine, strapping girl, who knew her own mind, with a handsome fortune pinned on to her skirts”; and Sir Teddy was not indifferent to this agreeable fact.