“But, papa,” she said, “I shall be very young; it will be very hard upon me to decide what is to be done with all that money, and to give and not to give. It will be very hard. How should I know which are the right people? I should either want to give to everybody or to nobody. I should throw it away, or I should be too frightened to make any use of it at all.” “That will be impossible,” said old Trevor, with a nod of satisfaction; “I have taken precautions about that.” “Then I should give foolishly, papa.” “Very likely, my dear, very likely; every one has to pay for his own experience. It is a very dear commodity, Lucy; I can’t give you mine, you must get it for yourself, and it has always, always to be paid for. There is no question about that.” “But, papa, would it not be a great deal better--you who have this experience, who have paid for it and got it--instead of living quietly here as if you were nobody, to do it all yourself?” The old man laughed. “There you have hit it, Lucy,” he said, “there you have hit it, my dear. I live quietly, as if I were nobody--and I am nobody--that is exactly the state of affairs.” “But,” she cried, with great surprise and indignation, “if you mean nobody in family, then neither am I, but the money, the money is all yours to do with it whatever you please.” Once more he laughed, and chuckled, and lost his breath, and coughed before he could recover it again; and whether it was the laughing, or the coughing, or something else, Lucy could not tell, but the water stood in his eyes. “You are mistaken, Lucy, you are mistaken,” he said. “You must understand the truth, my dear; neither am I any one to speak of, nor is the money mine. I have made a little in my life--oh, very little--a poor school-master’s earnings--what are they, nothing to make a fuss about. I’ve put my little savings away for Jock, you know that. A few thousand pounds, just as much as will give him a start in the world, if it is well taken care of.” “Papa, you ought to give Jock the half,” said Lucy reproachfully; “it is not fair that he should have nothing, and that all should come to me.”