Explore "The Caves of Shend" by David Hennessey on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
It was an axiom of the Dorset family that every member of it was clever, but that a seventh child born into it must be a genius. Probably this accounted for the fact that there had always been a seventh child in every known branch of the Dorset family, and on more than one occasion the fortunate seventh had proved to be twins. The climax of the family fortunes was reached when the grandparents of Miss Ballantyne's solicitor became the progenitors of a fourteenth child, a son, who proved, as might have been expected, a star of the first magnitude. He became an eminent lawyer, and achieved distinction for a few months in the capacity of Prime Minister of Victoria, accumulated a moderate fortune, and a knighthood, being known to history as Sir George Dorset. His death took place soon after the birth of his seventh child, who was named by his fond mother Septimus Dorset.
Septimus had been destined to follow in the footsteps of his noble father, and enter the profession of the law. By birthright a genius, as already inferred, he was at the time of our story twenty-six years of age.