Abstract
Abstract The names in Ralph the Heir are very confusing –– no less than four ‘Ralph Newtons’ figure in the plot, for instance. But the romantic story at the novel’s centre is straightforward enough. Ralph Newton (‘the heir’) is parentless and has been looked after by the lawyer Sir Thomas Underwood in the office of guardian. Underwood–– a superannuated widower –– has two daughters. Patience, the elder, is her father’s housekeeper and is ‘certainly not pretty’. The younger, Clarissa, is ‘a beauty’ and the family pet. Underwood also has another ward living in his Fulham villa, Mary Bonner, a surpassingly beautiful young orphan from the West Indies. Ralph opens proceedings by lightly proposing marriage to Clarissa (‘Dear, dear Clary, –– you know I love you’) during a summer’s day lounging by the Thames, dressed fetchingly in his straw hat and Jersey shirt. She tacitly accepts his offer. Clarissa, meanwhile, is loved faithfully by Ralph’s younger brother, Gregory, a dutiful clergyman.
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