"Nao," said Gradman.
"Suppose those Labour fellows come in, or worse! It's these people with fixed ideas who are the danger. Look at Ireland!"
"Ah!" said Gradman.
"Suppose I were to make a settlement on her at once with myself as beneficiary for life, they couldn't take anything but the interest from me, unless of course they alter the law."
Gradman moved his head and smiled.
"Aoh!" he said, "they wouldn't do tha-at!"
"I don't know," muttered Soames; "I don't trust them."
"It'll take two years, sir, to be valid against death duties."
Soames sniffed. Two years! He was only sixty-five!
"That's not the point. Draw a form of settlement that passes all my property to Miss Fleur's children in equal shares, with antecedent life-interests first to myself and then to her without power of anticipation, and add a clause that in the event of anything happening to divert her life-interest, that interest passes to the trustees, to apply for her benefit, in their absolute discretion."