"Yes; but I wouldn't have a big place in a park. They sort of stifle me. I want just necessities, because I haven't screwed up my courage to beg yet."
"To beg!" Mr. Staines thought his client had gone off her head.
"Yes. St. Francis did, you know—but then at that time you weren't taken up for begging as I should be now."
They both laughed.
"I think you would be put in a lunatic asylum begging with £50,000 a year."
"That's just it. Well, it's no good beating about the bush. Stone House will cost a heap to build, but now I want to make sure it's endowed."
"Endowed! Good heavens!"
"Why, of course, you can't live on nice rooms, can you? It may take in about forty persons double and single—then——. Yes, I want all my money to go to endow it, except just what will prevent my being a beggar."
"When you die you mean," said the lawyer turning a little pink. It was like someone suggesting throwing a priceless picture into the Thames.
"No, now, at once—— You know, Mr. Staines, my will was only temporary. I told you so. If I build and endow Stone House it will be a real monument to the memory of the General and Pups."