'No, an allowance is made to me out of the estate.'

'An allowance which ends on her marriage, if she marries with your
consent?'

'Yes, it ends then. Her uncle trusted me a deal more than he trusted
Barbara. She was strange from a child. Fond of the men,' as if that
were an unusual and unbecoming form of philanthropy.

'I see, and she being an heiress, the testator was anxious to protect her
youth and innocence?'

Mrs. Nicholson merely sniffed, but the sniff was affirmative, though
sarcastic.

'Her property, I suppose, is considerable? I do not ask from impertinent
curiosity, nor for exact figures. But, as a question of business, may we
call the fortune considerable?'

'Most people do. It runs into six figures.'

Merton, who had no mathematical head, scribbled on a piece of paper. The
result of his calculations (which I, not without some fever of the brow,
have personally verified) proved that 'six figures' might be anything
between 100,000_l_. and 999,000_l_. 19_s_. 11.75_d_.

'Certainly it is very considerable,' Merton said, after a few minutes
passed in arithmetical calculation. 'Am I too curious if I ask what is
the source of this opulence?'