the uncouth Roger Scatcherd, he keeps her parentage secret. Mary Scatcherd tells her brother that the baby has died. After his release from prison, Scatcherd rises quickly in the world, becoming extremely rich. When he completes a seemingly impossible important project on time, he is made a baronet. Throughout his career, he entrusts his financial affairs to Doctor Thorne. When Thorne becomes the family doctor to the Greshams, he persuades Scatcherd to lend increasing sums to the head of the family, the local squire. Eventually, much of the Gresham estate is put up as collateral. Meanwhile, Mary Thorne grows up with the Gresham children and becomes a great favourite with the whole family. As young adults, Mary and Frank Gresham — the only son and heir of the squire of Greshamsbury — fall in love. However, his parents want him to marry wealth; the squire has squandered much of his wealth on expensive and fruitless campaigns for a seat in Parliament and is grieved that he can leave little to his son. As Mary is penniless and of suspect birth, such a marriage is inconceivable to his mother and to the de Courcys, the Greshams' aristocratic relatives. They wish Frank to marry the 30-year-old, eccentric heiress Martha Dunstable instead. Frank reluctantly visits Courcy Castle in order to meet Miss Dunstable, and they become friends. He foolishly and playfully proposes, but she wisely demurs, knowing that he does not love her. Sir Roger Scatcherd is a chronic drunkard, and Doctor Thorne tries in vain to get him to curtail his drinking. In his will, Scatcherd stipulates that the bulk of his estate goes to his only son, the dissolute Louis Philippe. However, he leaves Doctor Thorne in control of the inheritance until Louis Philippe reaches the age of 25. Should Louis die before then, Scatcherd stipulates that the estate goes to his sister Mary's eldest child. Thorne, knowing that Scatcherd is thinking of the children Mary had in America, is forced to divulge Mary's parentage to Scatcherd, but Scatcherd leaves the will unchanged. Roger Scatcherd eventually dies of drink. The son proves just as much an alcoholic as the father, and his weaker constitution quickly brings him to the same end before he turns 25. After consulting with lawyers, Doctor Thorne confirms that his niece Mary is the heiress—now richer than even Miss Dunstable. Unaware of these developments, the still resolute