It is only in the light of his past history that the action can be understood.

Coming from one of the oldest families of Virginia, an heir to wealth and an honored name, he is but another example of the many who have sold their birth-right for a mess of pottage.

A drunkard and a spendthrift, he wasted his youth in gambling and betting on the races while honest men were toiling for their daily bread.
"Several times has Radnor Gaylord been disinherited and turned adrift, but Colonel Gaylord, weak in his love for his youngest son, invariably received him back again into the house he had dishonored.

Finally, pressed beyond the point of endurance, the old man took a firm stand and refused to meet his son's inordinate demands for money.

Young Gaylord, rendered desperate by debts, took the most obvious method of gaining his inheritance.