His clean-shaven and rather fleshy face usually wore a good-humored expression; his manners were easy and, as a rule, genial.
"We must have a talk," he began, indicating the documents in George's hand.

"I suppose you have grasped the position, even if Sylvia hasn't explained it.

She shows an excellent knowledge of details." There was a hint of dryness in his tone that escaped George's notice.
"So far as I can make out," he answered, "Dick owned a section of a second-class wheat-land, with a mortgage on the last quarter, some way back from a railroad.

The part under cultivation gives a poor crop." "What would you value the property at ?" George made a rough calculation.
"I expected something of the kind," Herbert told him.

"It's all Sylvia has to live upon, and the interest would hardly cover her dressmaker's bills." He looked directly at his cousin.