e, which he sealed
himself, and he and MacKelpie signed it across the flap.

Then father stood up, and so did I. So did the two men--the clerk and
the shorthand writer. Father did not say a word till we got out into the
street. We walked along, and presently we passed an open gate into the
fields. He turned back, saying to me:

"Come in here. There is no one about, and we can be quiet. I want to
speak to you." When we sat down on a seat with none other near it,
father said:

"You are a student of the law. What does all that mean?" I thought it a
good occasion for an epigram, so I said one word:

"Bilk!"

"H'm!" said father; "that is so far as you and I are concerned. You with
a beggarly ten thousand, and I with twenty. But what is, or will be, the
effect of those secret trusts?"

"Oh, that," I said, "will, I dare say, be all right. Uncle Roger
evidently did not intend the older generation to benefit too much by his
death. But he only gave Rupert St. Leger one thousand pounds, whilst he
gave me ten. That looks as if he had more regard for the direct line.
Of course--" Father interrupted me:

"But what was the meaning of a further sum?"

"I don't know, father. There was evidently some condition which he was
to fulfil; but he evidently didn't expect that he would. Why, otherwise,
did he leave a second trust to Mr. Trent?"

"True!" said father. Then he went on: "I wonder why he left those
enormous sums to Trent and old MacKelpie. They seem out of all
proportion as executors' fees, unless--"

"Unless what, father?"

"Unless the fortune he has left is an enormous one. That is why I
asked."

"And that," I laughed, "is why he refused to answer."

"Why, Ernest, it must run into big figures."

"Right-ho, father. The death-duties will be annoying. What a beastly
swindle the death-duties are! Why, I shall suffer even on your own
little estate . . . "

"That will do!" he said curtly. Father is so ridiculously touchy. One
would think he expects to live for ever. Presently he spoke again:

"I wonder what are the conditions of that trust. They are as
important--almost--as the amount of the bequest--whatever it is. By the
way, there seems to be no mention in the will of a residuary legatee.
Ernest, my boy, we may have to fight over that."

"How do you make that out, father?" I asked. He had been very rude over
the matter of the death-duties of his own estate, though it is entailed
and