COMMON opinion said that Lord Lynborough ought never to have had a peerage and forty thousand a year; he ought to have had a pound a week and a back bedroom in Bloomsbury. Then he would have become an eminent man; as it was, he turned out only a singularly erratic individual. So much for common opinion. Let no more be heard of its dull utilitarian judgments There are plenty of eminent men-at the moment, it is believed, no less than seventy Cabinet and ex-Cabinet Ministers (or thereabouts)-to say nothing of Bishops, Judges, and the British Academy-and all this in a nook of the world (And the...

Harry becomes engaged to Miss Vivien Wellgood, all the while carrying on a secret flirtation with Vivien's hired companion, Miss Isobel Vintry. Harry's father, a widower, also has his eye on Miss Vintry as a possible wife. When Andy discovers the secret relationship of Harry and Isobel, he begins to see that his friend is not so perfect a gentleman after all, but he says nothing, out of loyalty to his friend. But when the elder Mr. Belfield finds Harry kissing Isobel, the scandal breaks, Harry ends his engagement to Vivien and elopes with Isobel. His father is outraged and Harry's reputation...