In this way he won the Duchess's heart, and having done that, was it odd that he should win the heart of the daughter also?
His father was a Cornwall squire of comfortable means, having joined the property of his wife to his own for the period of his own life.
She had possessed land also in Cornwall, supposed to be worth fifteen hundred a year, and his own paternal estate at Polwenning was said to be double that value.

Being a prudent man, he lived at home as a country gentleman, and thus was able in his county to hold his head as high as richer men.

But Frank Tregear was only his second son; and though Frank would hereafter inherit his mother's fortune, he was by no means now in a position to assume the right of living as an idle man.

Yet he was idle.

The elder brother, who was considerably older than Frank, was an odd man, much addicted to quarrelling with his family, and who spent his time chiefly in travelling about the world.
Frank's mother, who was not the mother of the heir also, would sometimes surmise, in Frank's hearing, that the entire property must ultimately come to him.