What, my dear young lady! take entire charge of four million dollars? I
admire your business ambition, but I must tell you that such a task is
impossible, if you wish to have leisure for anything else. No, no! your
father could not have meant that. I knew him well, and he was the last
man to have wished to make you a slave to your good fortune. With an
income of nearly two hundred thousand dollars you can afford to leave to
some one else the anxiety and drudgery attendant on the care of your
property. Your father wished you to enjoy his money and use it well. He
has told me so himself. He was very fond and very proud of you, Miss
Harlan."

"But he was very anxious to have me understand business matters, Mr.
Chelm," I replied.

"And he was quite right, too. Don't think for a moment I am dissuading
you from undertaking a general supervision of your property and trying
to know all about it. It is your duty under the circumstances, I fully
agree. But it would never do to have you spending the best years of your
life cooped up in an office cutting off coupons and worrying over
investments. Not, to be sure, that there is much to be done at present,
for I never saw a cleaner list of securities than yours; but you have no
idea of the amount of watchfulness required to keep an estate like this
unimpaired. A family of children are nothing to it, ha! ha! No, Miss
Harlan, I tell you what we will do; you shall have a little office
adjoining mine, where you can spend one day in every week transacting
what is necessary in regard to your property. Everything shall be in
your name, and nothing done without your full understanding and consent.
I will be at hand to be plied with questions, and you shall become as
wise in finance as Necker himself. But I pray you to devote the six
remaining days to other things, and leave to us dry, matter-of-fact
lawyers the details of your business. I have a great many millions under
my control, and the percentage which I should derive from the care of
yours is a matter of indifference to me; but I am very much concerned
that you should not make the fatal mistake of becoming a mere feminine
trustee."

I yielded to persuasion; and in accordance with his promise a little
room adjoining his own private office was allotted to me, and every
Monday morning I drove down-town and spent the day in poring over the
ledgers and deeds and reports, and in taking a general scrutiny of my
affairs. At first it was all