She wanted to leave the bulk of her money ostensibly to me, but in
reality to her nephew, so that I should hold it in trust for him
till he was twenty-eight years old, but neither he nor anyone else,
except her lawyer and myself, was to know anything about it. She would
leave L5000 in other legacies, and L15,000 to Ernest- which by the
time he was twenty-eight would have accumulated to, say, L30,000,
"Sell out the debentures," she said, "where the money now is- and
put it into Midland Ordinary.
"Let him make his mistakes," she said, "upon the money his
grandfather left him. I am no prophet, but even I can see that it will
take that boy many years to see things as his neighbours see them.
He will get no help from his father and mother, who would never
forgive him for his good luck if I left him the money outright; I
daresay I am wrong, but I think he will have to lose the greater
part or all of what he has, before he will know how to keep what he
will get from me."
Supposing he went bankrupt before he was twenty-eight years old, the
money was to be mine absolutely, but she could trust me, she said,
to hand it over to Ernest in due time.
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