"You are surprised, Considine, to see us at this hour; but Herkimer thought it our only chance of finding you alone. You popular bachelors are so run after. Fact is, Herkimer says that it would be of advantage to them to have young Gerald's fortune paid up at once, instead of waiting for the short remainder of the twenty years to run out. After talking it over, I am free to confess that much may be said in favour of his view; and, indeed, he has quite brought me round, so I agreed to come with him and assure you of my willingness to join you in acceding. Young Gerald, you will remember, is of age now, and can legally confirm his father's demand. They are partners in business, and nearest of kin to each other, and can give us a full and complete acquittance of our responsibilities, which, speaking for myself, I shall be thankful to be rid of; for candidly I am not as young as I have been, and I grow lazy, I suppose, as well as fat, and I find my own concerns require all the attention I have to bestow. It has been a long and an onerous trust, and I dare say that, like myself, you will not be sorry to be rid of it." "I need scarcely say," observed Ralph, "that Gerald sees the importance to our affairs of winding up the trust at once, as strongly as I do. He has no desire, though, that the trustees should be deprived of their commission for management before the expiration of the twenty years. On the contrary, he appreciates their services so highly that it is his wish to make the allowance permanent, by granting them a capital sum sufficient to represent at eight per cent their emolument from the property." When Jordan began to speak Considine had set down his pipe and lay back in his chair, his left foot across his right knee, stroking it with his hand, while he fixed his eyes upon the speaker. When Ralph began, an incipient frown hovered about his eyebrows, the blood rose hotly to his forehead as the speaker proceeded, and he sat bolt upright, with fingers clenched and lips compressed, ere the conclusion was reached; when he answered in a voice of suppressed indignation: "I am humiliated, Mr. Herkimer, that you should have felt at liberty to speak as you have done. Your words might be taken to imply an insinuation against Jordan's probity and my own, for which I am certain that neither I nor he have given occasion. Take back what you have said, or I, for one, must decline to say a word upon the subject of your demand."