“For the present, yes.”
“And in the name of common sense—why?”
“Well, to keep him out of harm’s way.”
“My good young friend, you did well to take counsel with me. You would have done well to take counsel of any sane man on such a subject.”
“Why, what do you mean?”
“I begin to suspect that you need a trustee for your estate and a guardian for your person!”
“I don’t understand you!”
“Listen, then! That fellow deserves to go to prison. He might be sent to the village inn. But, my friend, he must not be allowed to spend so much as one night under your roof. To let him do so would be an act of insanity.”
“But why?”
“For more reasons than one. In the first place, he is the fraudulent claimant of your name and estate, though his claim will not bear an instant of light, a ray of truth, let in upon it; yet your allowing him to remain in the house to which he came as its pretended master, would seem, to him at least, to be giving some color to his pretensions. Do you see?”