In the North he left behind him everything but the accent which, to his own no small grief, and the unending anguish of his wife, he carried to the grave, and the money he had made in gloomy Lancashire.
He bought a villa in Croydon, modified his name under expert advice, and in the sun of the South country began to live.
Mr. Royal of Deepdene had made money in business in the North. Now he was going to spend it in the South.
Here began the second part of the Programme.
He married a middle-class woman, who had been a companion, and possessed some not very well-founded pretensions to family.
He entered the Church, ignoring formal admission by baptism, and took an active part in the life of the Town.
Capable and tireless, he became in time a Town Councillor, and, better still, a Justice of the Peace for Surrey. His grand ambition, never to be fulfilled in this world, was to be a Deputy Lieutenant of the county of his adoption.
There was one child of the marriage, who was christened at his wife's request, and with his full approval, Hildebrand.
The boy was sent to a first-rate preparatory school, where, being an aggressive youngster, he more than held his own.
Mr. Albert Royal was determined that his son should go to one of "our ancient public schools."