"And you are not dead?"
"Do I look as if I were?" asked Mr. Baldwin, smiling.
"What does it all mean?" asked Mr. Brief, bewildered.
"It means that I wished to try John Tremlett. I wished to ascertain whether he were worthy to inherit my fortune. What is your opinion?"
"My opinion," said the lawyer, "is that he would run through the property in five years. I am disgusted with him."
"How does he spend his money?" inquired Mr. Baldwin.
"In every kind of extravagance and every form of dissipation. At the rate he is going on, it is a question, in my mind, whether he or the property would last longer."
"I got that idea from my young friend here, who, by the way, knew of me only as Marcus Benton when he came first to see you."
"Of course you will resume possession of the property, Mr. Baldwin?"
"Such is my intention."