“Yes--I know. My sister-in-law--your mother and your grandfather--thought to screen you from what they thought family misfortune by never telling you the truth--that is to say, the whole truth. I have followed the same rule with my children.” “Family misfortune! I hardly know even now what to understand by it.” “Well, they are superstitious. Your father died young, your grandfather died young; like you, they were young men of promise. Your great-grandfather at the age of six-and-twenty or thereabouts was afflicted, as you know.” “And they think----” “They think that it is the visiting of the unknown sins of the fathers upon the children. They think that the old man’s father must have done something terrible.” “Oh, but this is absurd.” “Very likely--very likely. Meantime, as to the power of making a will, we must remember that during all these years the old man has never done anything foolish. I have seen the solicitors. They tell me that from father to son, having acted for him all these years, they have found him perfectly clear-headed about money matters. I could not ask them what he has done with all his money, nor what he intends to do with it. But there is the fact--the evidence of the solicitors as to the clearness of his intellect. My opinion, therefore, is that he will do something astonishing, unexpected, and disgusting with his money, and that it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to set aside his will.” “Oh, that is your opinion, is it? The reason why I ask is that I have just discovered a family of hitherto unknown cousins. Do you know the name of Galley?” “No. It is not a name, I should say, of the highest nobility.” “Possibly not. It is the name of our cousins, however. One of them is a solicitor of a somewhat low class, I should say; the man has no pretensions whatever to be called a gentleman. He practises and lives in the Commercial Road, which is, I suppose, quite out of the ordinary quarter where you would find a solicitor of standing.” “Quite, quite; as a place of residence--deplorable from that point of view.” “He has a sister, it appears, who is a Board School teacher.” “A Board School teacher? It is at least respectable. But who are these precious cousins of ours?” “They are the grandchildren of an aunt of yours--Lucy by name.” “Lucy! Yes. I have heard of her; I thought she was dead long ago.” “She married a man named Galley. They seem to have gone down in the world.” “More family misfortune.” The lawyer shuddered. “I am not superstitious,” he said, “but really--more misfortunes.” “Oh, misfortunes! Nonsense! There are always in every family some who go down--some who go up--some who stay there. You yourself have been borne steadily upwards to name and fortune.” “I have,” said the lawyer, with half a groan. “Oh yes--yes--I have.” “And my uncle Fred, you see, comes home--all his wild oats sowed--with a great fortune.”