Anthony Trollope

Harry Clavering is the only son of Reverend Henry Clavering, a well-to-do clergyman and the paternal uncle of the affluent baronet Sir Hugh Clavering. At the novel's beginning, Harry is jilted by his fianc e, the sister of Sir Hugh's wife, who proceeds to marry Lord Ongar, a wealthy but debauched earl. Harry's father urges him to make the church his profession; but Harry aspires to become a civil engineer, of the type of Robert Stephenson, Joseph Locke, and Thomas Brassey. To this end, he becomes a pupil at the firm of Beilby and Burton. A year and a half later, Harry has become engaged to Florence Burton, the daughter of one of his employers. He presses her for an early marriage; but although she loves him deeply, she refuses, insisting that they wait until he has an income adequate to support himself and a family. At this point, Lord Ongar dies, and his widow returns to England. Sir Hugh, her nearest male relative, is a hard and selfish man, and refuses to see her upon her arrival. This lends spurious credence to rumours about her conduct; and it forces her sister, Lady Clavering, to ask Harry to assist her when she returns. Harry fails to tell Lady Ongar of his engagement; and, in a moment of weakness, he embraces and kisses her. This puts him in a position where he must behave dishonourably toward one of the two women in his life: either he must break his engagement, or he must acknowledge that he has gravely insulted Lady Ongar. Although he loves Florence Burton and knows that she is the better woman, he is unwilling to subject Lady Ongar to further misery. Lady Ongar, because of her considerable wealth, is pursued by others. She is courted by Count Pateroff, one of her late husband's friends, and by Archie Clavering, Sir Hugh's younger brother. Count Pateroff's scheming sister Sophie Gourdeloup, the only woman who will see Lady Ongar because of the rumours about her conduct, wants her to remain single so that Mme. Gourdeloup can continue to exploit her. Mme. Gourdeloup sees to it that Lady Ongar learns about Harry's engagement. Meanwhile, Florence Burton learns that Harry has been seeing Lady Ongar regularly, and decides that she must release him if he does not truly love her. Through the good influence of his mother, Harry comes to realise that Florence Burton is the better woman and the less deserving of dishonorable treatment. To her letter offering to end their engagement, he responds with a reaffirmation of his love for her. He also writes to Lady Ongar, regretting his past conduct toward her and making it clear that he intends to remain true to his fianc e. Soon thereafter, Sir Hugh and Archie Clavering are both drowned when their yacht goes down off Heligoland. This makes Harry's father the new baronet and the possessor of Clavering Park, with Harry the heir apparent. This increase in wealth allows him to marry immediately and to give up engineering, a profession for which he almost certainly lacked sufficient self-discipline. Lady Ongar gives up much of her property to the family of the new earl, and retires into seclusion with her widowed sister.

After taking his degree at Cambridge, John Caldigate found himself, in consequence of certain amusements at Newmarket and elsewhere, heavily indebted to a moneylender, Davis, and with no means to meet his obligation. His father Daniel Caldigate, disgusted with his extravagance and folly, arranged through his banker friend Nicholas Bolton for the sale by his son of the reversion of the estate and for a mortgage to clear his debts. At Mr. Bolton's home where John went to sign the papers, he met, briefly, Bolton's young daughter Hester, and fell in love with her. With his college friend Dick Shand, he went out to New South Wales to try his fortune in goldmining. On the long voyage out he met Euphemia Smith, an adventuress, and was trapped into a quasi-engagement. The two young men had the good fortune to locate a paying mine and worked together until Dick, who had been drinking heavily, disappeared. John, in his loneliness, foolishly renewed his attentions to Euphemia Smith, and for a time they lived together. After John had acquired a considerable property he sold his mine and returned to England, where he was reconciled with his father and married Hester Bolton. Soon after the birth of his son, Euphemia Smith and Tim Crinkett a former partner to whom he had sold his interest in the mine, followed him to England to blackmail him into a repayment of 20,000. They alleged that the mine was worked out; that he had married Mrs. Smith in New South Wales; and that his marriage to Hester Bolton was bigamous. He recognized that there was a moral though not a legal claim for the return of part of the purchase price of the mine, but was advised against buying them off. In the course of the trial, however, he very foolishly did so, and when this became known, opinion ran against him. He was convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. The evidence against him rested largely on an envelope posted in Sydney, addressed by him to Mrs. Smith as Mrs. Caldigate. A postal clerk succeeded in proving that the postmark on the envelope was a forgery, and that the stamp was not issued until after the date of the postmark. At this fortunate moment Dick Shand returned and by his testimony proved that there had been no marriage. An appeal was made to the Home Office, and John received the Queen's pardon.