"It wouldn't be prudent."

"Ho! ho!" laughed the clerk sarcastically.

"Once more," said Ben. "I request you to announce me to Mr. Brief.

He is executor of Mr. Baldwin's estate, I believe."

"Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me that was your business?"

"I couldn't see that it mattered to you."

At this moment the inner door opened, and a tall man, with reddish hair and mutton-chop whiskers of the same hue, made his appearance.

"What's this Frederic? Who is this boy?"

"I wish to see you on business connected with Mr. Baldwin's estate sir," said Ben; "but this young man appears to have an objection to the interview."

"Why don't you bring him in?"

"I didn't suppose he had any business with you."

"Who const.i.tuted you a judge of that, sir? Hereafter leave me to decide. Boy, come in."

Mr. Brief threw himself into an office chair.

"Well, who are you?" he asked.

"My name is Benjamin Bradford."

"Well?"

"You wrote a letter to my aunt, Mrs. Jane Bradford, of Milltown, Ma.s.sachusetts, not long since."

"Exactly. Do you represent her?"

"I do."

"Very well. Did you bring the three hundred dollars which she owes to the estate of my client?"

"No, sir."

"What then?"

"I came to repeat what I have written you, that my aunt was authorized to occupy the house rent-free."

"It was hardly worth while to come so far to say that," said Mr. Brief, with a sneer.

"I am here in Montreal on other business, and have taken the opportunity to see you about my own."

"Indeed! Then you are a business man?"

"I represent the firm of Jones & Porter, publishers."

"Humph! Can't they get any one but a boy to represent them?"

"That, sir, is their business," he answered emphatically. "I have not chosen to inquire whether my uncle could not have found a better lawyer to act as executor."

"You are impudent, young man!" exclaimed Solomon Brief, his face being as red for the moment as his hair.

"We have neither of us been overcivil," said Ben. "Suppose we come back to business."

"Come now, you're a cool one."

"Perhaps I am. I have always understood that coolness is desirable in business. May I inquire of what disease my uncle died?"

"It would serve you right if I declined to answer your questions after your impudence to me. However, I will overlook it this time. Your uncle committed suicide."

"Good gracious!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Ben, who was quite unprepared for this announcement. "How did he do it?"

"He drowned himself."

"What could possibly have driven him to it?"

"Of that we are ignorant. He left a letter at his lodgings, directing me to open and carry out the provisions of his will, which he had deposited with me."

"May I ask what were the provisions of his will?"

"You seem to be curious."

"I have a right to be. My aunt and myself are among his nearest relations, if not the nearest. We had a right to suppose that we might be remembered in his will."

"You were not."

"You can understand that we wish, at all events, to know the contents of the will. We should have been apprised of his death sooner."

As a lawyer Mr. Brief understood that Ben was in the right, and he produced a copy of the will.

The will was brief. The entire estate of the deceased was left to John Tremlett with this provision, that for the first year only the income should be paid to him; afterward he was to come into full possession.

"It seems regular," said Ben.

"Of course it is regular. I helped him make the will."

"Who is Mr. Tremlett? I never heard of him."

"A second or third cousin. He was a sort of adopted son of Mr. Baldwin."