Many circumstances, with which you are not acquainted, assure me of this, and I consider that I owe everything to him." There was a certain sternness about these words; he would have, it was evident, no discussion.
John Mortimer heard his father say this with surprise.

"He must mean that he owes his religious views to my uncle," was his thought; but to Brandon, who did not trouble himself about those last words, the others were full of meaning; the amount of the gift, together with the hint at circumstances with which Valentine was not acquainted, made him feel almost certain that the strange words, "I forbade my mother to leave her property to me," alluded to something which was known to the next brother.
Valentine, at first, was too much surprised to be joyous, but he thanked his uncle with something of the cordial ingenuousness and grace which had distinguished his father.
"I can have a tour _now_, can't I, old fellow," he said after a time to his brother; "take my wife"-- here a joyous laugh--"my WIFE on the Continent; we shall go dashing about from place to place, you know, staying at hotels, _and all that!_" "To be sure," said Brandon, "staying at hotels, of course, and ordering wonderful things for breakfast.

I think I see you now-- "'Happy married lovers, Phillis trifling with a plover's Egg, while Corydon uncovers With a grace the Sally Lun.'" "That's the way this fellow is always making game of me," exclaimed Valentine; "why I'm older than you were, John, when you married." "And wild horses shall never drag the words out of me that I was too young," said John Mortimer, "whatever I may think," he continued.
"John was a great deal graver than you are," said Brandon; "besides, he knew the multiplication table." "So do I, of course," exclaimed Valentine.
"Well," answered Brandon, "I never said you did not.".