“Hm-m. And your—er—business in Hillerton, that will enable you to be the observing fly on your cousins’ walls?”

“Yes, I’ve thought that all out, too; and that’s another brilliant stroke. I’m going to be a genealogist. I’m going to be at work tracing the Blaisdell family—their name is Blaisdell. I’m writing a book which necessitates the collection of an endless amount of data. Now how about that fly’s chances of observation. Eh?”

“Mighty poor, if he’s swatted—and that’s what he will be! New England housewives are death on flies, I understand.”

“Well, I’ll risk this one.”

“You poor fellow!” There were exasperation and amusement in the lawyer’s eyes, but there was only mock sympathy in his voice. “And to think I’ve known you all these years, and never suspected it, Fulton!”

The man who owned twenty millions still smiled imperturbably.

“Oh, yes, I know what you mean, but I’m not crazy. And really I’m interested in genealogy, too, and I’ve been thinking for some time I’d go digging about the roots of my ancestral tree. I have dug a little, in years gone. My mother was a Blaisdell, you know. Her grandfather was brother to some ancestor of these Hillerton Blaisdells; and I really am interested in collecting Blaisdell data. So that’s all straight. I shall be telling no fibs. And think of the opportunity it gives me! Besides, I shall try to board with one of them. I’ve decided that.”

“Upon my word, a pretty little scheme!”

“Yes, I knew you’d appreciate it, the more you thought about it.” Mr. Stanley G. Fulton’s blue eyes twinkled a little.

With a disdainful gesture the lawyer brushed this aside.

“Do you mind telling me how you happened to think of it, yourself?”

“Not a bit. ’Twas a little booklet got out by a Trust Company.”

“It sounds like it!”

“Oh, they didn’t suggest exactly this, I’ll admit; but they did suggest that, if you were fearful as to the way your heirs would handle their inheritance, you could create a trust fund for their benefit while you were living, and then watch the way the beneficiaries spent the income, as well as the way the trust fund itself was managed. In this way you could observe the effects of your gifts, and at 

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