His father was altogether wrong, tyrannical, cruel; he himself was altogether right, a victim of his father's ignorance of the world.
"I decided not to submit," said Arthur, as if the decision were one which had come to him the instant his father had shown the teeth and claws of tyranny, instead of being an impulse of just that moment, inspired by Mrs.Whitney's encouragement to the weakest and worst in his nature.
"I shouldn't be too hasty about that," she cautioned.

"He is old and sick.

You ought to be more than considerate.

And, also, you should be careful not to make him do anything that would cut you out of your rights." It was the first time the thought of his "rights"-- of the share of his father's estate that would be his when his father was no more--had definitely entered his head.

That he would some day be a rich man he had accepted just as he accepted the other conditions of his environment--all to which he was born and in which consisted his title to be regarded as of the "upper classes," like his associates at Harvard.