"Nicholas tells me that he had just got out of prison, and applied to Mrs. Kent for help, which she refused. Incensed at this, he probably set the house on fire."
"I think he would be capable of doing it. Has he been arrested?"
"Not yet, but the police are on his track. I don't think he can escape."
"Nicholas doesn't seem to take his mother's death very hard."
"No. I am disgusted with his selfishness. He seems to be principally concerned about property which she leaves."
"I suppose he will inherit it."
"Yes. I don't know in what state it is, but it ought to amount to thirty thousand dollars. It is a large slice of your father's fortune."
"I do not begrudge it to him. I shall have enough."
"That reminds me that it is time to open the instrument which your father left with me."
The paper was opened then and there, and proved to contain the following direction: That in case Jasper and his step-mother did not get along harmoniously, his old friend, Mr. Miller, was empowered and requested to assume the guardianship of Jasper.