Peregrine Vereker, in the eyes of his aunt Julia, who brought him up to the mature age of nineteen, was a polished young gentleman, an incipient artist and poet. In the opinion of his two uncles he was an ignorant mollycoddle, a ladylike nincompoop, unacquainted with manliness. Stung by their scorn, Peregrine ''ran away'' as many a lad before and since, to learn the world and prove his worth, and ran the gamut of happiness and misery, of fear and courage, of loneliness and love before he matched up to the requirements of his two uncles.