Sir Joseph's reply
absolutely confounded him. He looked across the table at his client and
delivered himself on this special occasion of as many as three words.
"Are you mad?" he asked.
Sir Joseph's healthy complexion slightly reddened. "I never was in more
complete possession of myself, Mr. Dicas, than at this moment."
Mr. Dicas was not to be silenced in that way.
"Are you aware of what you do," persisted the lawyer, "if you appoint
Mr. Turlington as sole executor and trustee? You put it in the power of
your daughter's husband, sir, to make away with every farthing of your
money after your death."
Turlington had hitherto listened with an appearance of interest in the
proceedings, which he assumed as an act of politeness. To his view, the
future was limited to the date at which Bulpit Brothers had a right to
claim the repayment of their loan. The Will was a matter of no earthly
importance to him, by comparison with the infinitely superior interest
of the Marriage. It was only when the lawyer's brutally plain language
forced his attention to it that the question of his pecuniary interest
in his father-in-law's death assumed its fit position in his mind.
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