A story of a boy who was not an orphan - he had his mother, having lost his father, and his father had been wealthy enough to leave them comfortable and not wanting - but lost much due to machinations of his stepfather, who was the custodian of the wife's estate according to the law as then it was in England, perhaps in all of Europe as well. More important and tearing at heart, he lost the comfort of his mother who was forcibly separated from him, and died perhaps just as much of childbirth as of grief for her seeing beloved son unjustly punished and harshly treated.
He found caring and sympathy, and grew up to be his own man, not unjust or harsh in return but fair, and faced his trials in finding love - which, one cannot help thinking, might have been less if he had not been separated from his mother. Dora does remind one of the other fragile and pretty woman in his life who was unable to discern and deal with life with caution and prudence.
If only she had had wise advisors before marrying a second time, or if the law had not been so unfair! The latter is reformed, one hopes, sufficiently enough to prevent cheating of women and children of what belongs to them.