But I was surprised to find that this was not the general opinion in the neighborhood.

Radnor's reputation, I learned with something of a shock, was far from what it should have been.

I was told with a meaning undertone that he "favored" his brother Jeff.

Though many of the stories were doubtless exaggerated, I learned subsequently that there was too much truth in some of them.

It was openly said that Polly Mathers would be doing a great deal better if she chose young Mattison, for though he might not have the prospect of as much money as Radnor Gaylord, he was infinitely the steadier of the two.