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"I see. Uncle Douglas was afraid that I might spend the fifty-three thousand all at once."

I nodded. "That was in his mind. He did not know you, of course, Miss Paget, so there was nothing personal about it. He felt that in general women were less fit than men to handle large sums of money at an early age."

She said quietly, "He may have been right." She thought for a minute, and then she said, "So you're going to look after the money for me till I'm thirty-five and give me the interest to spend in the meantime? Nine hundred a year?"

"If you wish us to conduct your income-tax affairs for you, that would be about the figure," I said. "We can arrange the payments in any way that you prefer, as a quarterly or a monthly cheque, for example. You would get a formal statement of account half-yearly."

She asked curiously, "How do you get paid for doing all this for me, Mr. Strachan?"

I smiled. "That is a very prudent question, Miss Paget. You will find a clause in the will, No. 8, I think, which entitles us to charge for our professional services against the income from the trust. Of course, if you get into any legal trouble we should be glad to act for you and help you in any way we could. In that case we should charge you on the normal scale of fees."