The first chapter, essentially a prologue, sets forth the strangely dramatic death of Squire Philip Yordas just after he had made a will disinheriting his son Duncan.

Mr. Jellicorse, the family lawyer, comes by chance upon evidence of a fatal flaw in the sisters' title to the estate, and rides over to acquaint them with this unpleasant fact.

[1] As Mary rides down the hollow of the Dyke on the same morning Mr. Jellicorse leaves Scargate Hall, she falls in with a man who is running for his life from men who are pursuing and shooting at him.

The Saturday Review called it "one of his happiest productions" and said that "it is full of the fine touches of observation and description, whether of people or of places, that have belonged to most of his novels, and there is a strong dramatic interest to be found in it.

"[1] The Spectator called it "the best book he has written since Lorna Doone" and that "love and knowledge of Nature are among his chief and most charming characteristics; in none of his works are they displayed more bountifully than in this one.