A young man returns at last to his father's house and finds childhood transformed by family warmth, old rivalries, and the sudden revelation of an uncle he never knew: Captain de Caxton, a stern, courtly soldier newly reconciled to the household. What begins as a comic reunion over tea, dinner, and garden conversation soon widens into a sharp debate on rank, ancestry, and the meaning of honor, ignited by the captain's treasured Waterloo medal and his refusal to let military service be reduced to money or status. As the evening and the night unfold, the family history comes into view: two brothers from a poor clerical line, divided by pride, scholarship, inherited claims, and love for the same beautiful woman; a reclaimed castle; a bought commission; a widow's grief; and children scattered between England and France. The father, the mother, and the uncle each defend a different vision of value—intellectual, romantic, practical, and moral—while the narrator tests inherited legend against modern skepticism. Beneath the wit and quarrels lies a larger meditation on how societies assign worth, and on the tragic mismatch between character, circumstance, and unrealized genius. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
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