"I have money of my own--my mother's fortune--of which you have the particulars."
"Yes, we can give you all the information you require, and it requires but your signature to a few documents, already prepared, my dear sir, to place you in possession of this very handsome inheritance."
"You can probably tell me the amount of it."
"Almost to a farthing. It is invested in the safest securities, realisable at an hour's notice, and it amounts to,"--the lawyer took some papers from a japanned box and ran his eye over them--"it amounts to not less than twenty-three thousand pounds."
"Will that," asked Basil, "with my father's estate, satisfy in full the claims which are pouring in?"
"But my dear sir," expostulated the lawyer, with a look of astonishment.
Basil would not allow him to conclude. "I have to repeat some of my questions, it seems," he said. "Will this fortune, which is realisable in an hour, satisfy in full the claims of my father's creditors?"
The lawyer shrugged his shoulders, and replied briefly, "More than satisfy them."
"Then the matter is settled," said Basil. "I empower you to collect the whole of these claims to the uttermost farthing; to convert the securities which are mine into money; to prepare a complete balance sheet, and to pay my father's creditors in full, with as little delay as possible."
"I am to accept these instructions as definite and decisive?"