Ned is Charles’s brother and Frank’s uncle. With Charles, Ned is portrayed as a kind of benevolent and generous savior who steps in to save Nicholas and his family from their string of bad luck. Ned and Charles give Nicholas a job and rent a cottage to him and his family. Ned and Charles’s benevolence as successful businessmen serves as a tacit indictment of people like Ralph. Ned and Charles use their wealth to benefit others, while Ralph amasses money and power for himself and himself only. Ned and Charles also started with nothing and then became successful in business. With that in mind, the novel uses Ned and Charles to tacitly argue that because Ralph was born with a certain level of money and status, he never had to strive for money and therefore doesn’t know what it means to struggle financially.