suddenness that the term "gentleman" was that frequently applied to persons who had no occupation or visible means of support. Nowhere in John Benham's instructions was there mention of any plan for a vocation. Obviously if the old man had intended Jerry for a business career he would have said so, and the omission of any exact instructions convinced me that such an idea was furthest from John Benham's thoughts. It remained for me to decide the matter in the best way that I could, for determined I was that Jerry, merely because of the possession of much worldly goods, should not be that bane of humanity and of nations, an idler.

   At about this period Mr. Ballard the elder came down to Horsham Manor on one of his visits of inspection and inquiry. He brought up the subject of his own accord.

   "What do you think, Canby, what have you planned about Jerry's future?"

   I told him that my only ambition, so far, had been to make of Jerry a gentleman and a scholar.

   "Yes, of course," he nodded. "That's what you are here for. But beyond that?"

   "Nothing," I replied. "I am following my instructions from Mr. Benham. They go no further than that."

   He frowned into the fire.

   "That's all very well as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. Jerry is now eighteen. Do you realize that in three years he comes into possession of five million dollars, an income of over two hundred thousand a year; and that in seven years, at twenty-five, the executors must relinquish the entire estate?"

   I had not thought of the imminence of this disaster.

   "I was not aware, Mr. Ballard," I said. "At the present moment Jerry doesn't know a dollar from a nickel."

   He opened his eyes wide and examined me as though he feared he had not heard correctly or as though it were blasphemy, heresy that I was uttering.

   "You mean that he doesn't know the value and uses of money?"

   "So far as I am aware," I replied coolly, "he has never seen a piece of money in his life."

   "All wrong, all wrong, Canby. This won't do at all. He had his arithmetic, percentage and so forth?"

   "Yes. But money doesn't interest him. Can you see any reason why it should?"

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