On the Brink of a Chasm by L.T. Meade — Read

Sir Piers Pelham, aged seven, was an autocrat. He lived in a big house, daintily and luxuriously furnished. He had servants to do his bidding; each whim was attended to immediately; his mother was there to obey his every dictate. He was the King in No. 12 Ashley Mansions. Nothing was too great to do for him, nothing too hard to endure for his sake.

At present the little baronet was under the care of guardians-his mother was one, a lawyer of the name of Carroll was another, and Luke Tarbot, one of the cleverest and most rising doctors in Harley Street, the third. When Piers came of age he would enter into a property which represented over sixty thousand pounds a year.