In proportion to their valueless existence was the pride of the Hurdlestone family.  Their wealth gained for them the respect of the world; their ancient name the respect of those who place an undue importance on such things; and their own vanity and self-importance maintained the rank and consequence which they derived from these adventitious claims.

Squire Hurdlestone the elder was a shrewd worldly minded man, whose natural hauteur concealed from common observers the paucity of his intellect.  His good qualities were confined to his love of Church and State; and to do him justice, in this respect he was a loyal man and true—­the dread of every hapless Jacobite in the country.  In his early days he had fought under the banners of the Duke of Cumberland as a gentleman volunteer; and had received the public thanks of that worthy for the courage he displayed at the memorable battle of Culloden, and for the activity and zeal with which he afterwards assisted in apprehending certain gentlemen in his own neighborhood, who were suspected of secretly befriending the unfortunate cause.  At every public meeting the Squire was eloquent in his own praise.

“Who can doubt my patriotism, my loyalty?” he would exclaim.  “I did not confine my sentiments upon the subject to mere words.  I showed by my deeds, gentlemen, what those sentiments were.  I took an active part in suppressing the rebellion, and restoring peace to these realms.  And what did I obtain, gentlemen?—­the thanks—­yes, gentlemen, the public thanks of the noble Duke!” He would then resume his seat, amidst the plaudits of his time-serving friends, who, judging the rich man by his own standard of excellence, declared that there was not his equal in the county.

Not content with an income far beyond his sordid powers of enjoyment, Squire Hurdlestone the elder married, without any particular preference, the daughter of a rich London merchant, whose fortune nearly doubled his own.  The fruits of this union were two sons, who happened in the economy of nature to be twins.  This double blessing rather alarmed the parsimonious Squire; but as the act of maternal extravagance was never again repeated on the part of Mrs. Hurdlestone, he used to rub his hands and tell as a good joke, whenever his heart was warmed by an extra glass of wine, that his wife was the best manager in the world, as the same trouble and expense did for both.

A greater difference did not exist between the celebrated sons of Isaac than was discernible in these modern twins.  Unlike in person, talents, heart, and disposition, from their very birth, they formed a striking contrast to each other.  Mark, the elder by half-an-hour, was an exaggeration of his father, inheriting in a stronger degree all his narrow notions and chilling parsimony; but, unlike his progenitor in one respect, he was a young man of excellent natural capacity.  He possessed strong passions, linked to a dogged obstinacy of purpose, which rendered him at all times a dangerous and implacable enemy; while the stern unyielding nature of his temper, and the habitual selfishness which characterised all his dealings with others, excluded him from the friendship and companionship of his kind.