He had married for love, and the wife of his choice had been very dutiful and submissive.

What more could he have demanded from her?
and why should he grudge her the inheritance of his wealth?
Well, he would not have grudged it to her, perhaps, since some one must have it, if it had not been for that aggravating conviction that she would marry again, and that the man she preferred to him would riot in the possession of his hardly-earned riches.

She would marry Frank Randall; and between them they would mismanage, and ultimately ruin, the farm.

He remembered the cost of the manure he had put upon his fields that year, and regretted that useless outlay.

It was a hard thing to have enriched his land only that others might profit by the produce.
"And if I've laid down a yard of drain-pipes since last year, I've laid down a dozen mile.