Report, or scandal, whichever you please, said that the old gentleman had been rather wild in his youthful days, and that, unlike most parents, he was not disposed to be violently indignant when he found that his son took after him.

This may be true or not.

I myself only knew the elder Mr.Holliday when he was getting on in years, and then he was as quiet and as respectable a gentleman as ever I met with.
Well, one September, as I told you, young Arthur comes to Doncaster, having decided all of a sudden, in his hare-brained way, that he would go to the races.

He did not reach the town till toward the close of evening, and he went at once to see about his dinner and bed at the principal hotel.

Dinner they were ready enough to give him, but as for a bed, they laughed when he mentioned it.