In this case, if you still wish the investigation to be privately carried on, I entreat you to let me continue to direct it, as the greatest favor you can confer on your devoted old friend.
"You need be under no apprehension about the expense to which you are likely to put me.

I have unexpectedly inherited what is to me a handsome fortune.
"The same post which brought your aunt's letter brought a line from a lawyer asking me to see him on the subject of my late father's affairs.
I waited a day or two before I could summon heart enough to see him, or to see anybody; and then I went to his office.

You have heard that my father's bank stopped payment, at a time of commercial panic.

His failure was mainly attributable to the treachery of a friend to whom he had lent a large sum of money, and who paid him the yearly interest, without acknowledging that every farthing of it had been lost in unsuccessful speculations.

The son of this man has prospered in business, and he has honorably devoted a part of his wealth to the payment of his father's creditors.