I ought to
trespass. But never mind. You will be a great man some day, Endymion,
and you will remember the good Penruddocks."

CHAPTER XXX

One of the most remarkable families that have ever flourished in England
were the NEUCHATELS. Their founder was a Swiss, who had established
a banking house of high repute in England in the latter part of the
eighteenth century, and, irrespective of a powerful domestic connection,
had in time pretty well engrossed the largest and best portion of
foreign banking business. When the great French Revolution occurred,
all the emigrants deposited their jewels and their treasure with the
Neuchatels. As the disturbance spread, their example was followed by
the alarmed proprietors and capitalists of the rest of Europe; and,
independently of their own considerable means, the Neuchatels thus had
the command for a quarter of a century, more or less, of adventitious
millions. They were scrupulous and faithful stewards, but they were
doubtless repaid for their vigilance, their anxiety, and often their
risk, by the opportunities which these rare resources permitted them to
enjoy. One of the Neuchatels was a favourite of Mr. Pitt, and assisted
the great statesman in his vast financial arrangements. This Neuchatel
was a man of large capacity, and thoroughly understood his period.
The minister wished to introduce him to public life, would have opened
Parliament to him, and no doubt have showered upon him honours and
titles. But Neuchatel declined these overtures. He was one of those
strong minds who will concentrate their energies on one object; without
personal vanity, but with a deep-seated pride in the future. He was
always preparing for his posterity. Governed by this passion, although
he himself would have been content to live for ever in Bishopsgate
Street, where he was born, he had become possessed of a vast
principality, and which, strange to say, with every advantage of
splendour and natural beauty, was not an hour's drive from Whitechapel.

HAINAULT HOUSE had been raised by a British peer in the days when nobles
were fond of building Palladian palaces. It was a chief work of Sir
William Chambers, and in its style, its beauty, and almost in its
dimensions, was a rival of Stowe or Wanstead. It stood in a deer park,
and was surrounded by a royal forest. The family that had raised it wore
out in the earlier part of this century. It was supposed that the place
must be destroyed and disma