“This gives me scant hope of your chance of success with him.”
“I don't know, George. All this happened ten months ago, when he came down here for the snipe-shooting. He may have forgiven, or better still, forgotten it. In any case, tell me exactly what I 'm to write, and I 'll see what I can do with him.”
“You're to say that your brother has just heard from a person, in whom he places the most perfect confidence, say Harding in short—Colonel Bramleigh's agent—that an enterprise which will shortly be opened here offers an admirable opportunity of investment, and that as your small fortune in Consols—”
“In what?”
“No matter. Say that as your two thousand pounds—which now yield an interest of seventy, could secure you an income fully four times that sum, you hope he will give his consent to withdraw the money from the Funds, and employ it in this speculation. I 'd not say speculation, I 'd call it mine at once—coal-mine.”
“But if I own this money, why must I ask Mr. Vickars' leave to make use of it as I please?”
“He is your trustee, and the law gives him this power, Ju, till you are nineteen, which you will not be till May next.”
“He'll scarcely be disagreeable, when his opposition must end in five months.”
“That's what I think too, but before that five months run over the share list may be filled, and these debentures be probably double the present price.”
“I 'm not sure I understand your reasoning, but I 'll go and write my letter, and you shall see if I have said all that you wished.”