Excerpt from Holy Lucre a Drama in Four Acts The Marquis of San Lucar is an American clergyman who has inherited vast wealth from a long forgotten uncle in South America, made a marques by Dom Pedro. His wealth, something of a burden, gives him an opportunity to study human nature in his true character - that of a clergyman. He gets a cultivated young woman of great personal charm to rent a large place in England, and gather about her the leading society lights, and he and his wife appear in simple guise. The story hinges on the love Of an impoverished Earl for the charming friend. The first act shows the mutual impression they make on each other, and owing to his pride and her lack of wealth the difficulty of their marrying. The second act reveals the machinations of a poor nobleman who, through a detective disguised as his valet, discloses the fact that the heiress is not rich, and raises the question of her character, by showing her bills are paid by the marquis. The third act develops the plot. And the confession of the clergyman leaves little room for doubt that the original idea was true. This gives the earl a chance to show his manliness, which he does. The fourth act straightens out the tangle, and relieves the earl of the suspicion she is not what she seems, and gives him an opportunity to retrieve his fortunes without marrying for money. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.