Somehow he had the notion that she didn't take to him fust rate.
"'Hey ?' sings out Nate.

'Tolliver?
Why, that's Augustus! AUGUSTUS! well, I'll be switched!' "Augustus Tolliver was Nate's nephew from up Boston way.

Him and Nate was livin' together at that time.

Huldy Ann, Mrs.Scudder, was out West, in Omaha, takin' care of a cousin of hers who was a chronic invalid and, what's more to the purpose, owned a lot of stock in copper mines.
"Augustus was a freckle-faced, spindle-shanked little critter, with spectacles and a soft, polite way of speakin' that made you want to build a fire under him to see if he could swear like a Christian.

He had a big head with consider'ble hair on the top of it and nothin' underneath but what he called 'science' and 'sociology.' His science wa'n't nothin' but tommy-rot to Nate, and the 'sociology' was some kind of drivel about everybody bein' equal to everybody else, or better.
'Seemed to think 'twas wrong to get a good price for a thing when you found a feller soft enough to pay it.