John Caldigate

After taking his degree at Cambridge, John Caldigate found himself, in consequence of certain amusements at Newmarket and elsewhere, heavily indebted to a moneylender, Davis, and with no means to meet his obligation. His father Daniel Caldigate, disgusted with his extravagance and folly, arranged through his banker friend Nicholas Bolton for the sale by his son of the reversion of the estate and for a mortgage to clear his debts. At Mr. Bolton’s home where John went to sign the papers, he met, briefly, Bolton’s young daughter Hester, and fell in love with her. With his college friend Dick Shand, he went out to New South Wales to try his fortune in goldmining. On the long voyage out he met Euphemia Smith, an adventuress, and was trapped into a quasi-engagement. The two young men had the good fortune to locate a paying mine and worked together until Dick, who had been drinking heavily, disappeared. John, in his loneliness, foolishly renewed his attentions to Euphemia Smith, and for a time they lived together. Wikipedia