Page 104 (1/2)

"And even I felt happy for her

"Aunt Queen kissed her cheek and told her warmly that it was indeed wondrous news, and now Patsy could buy some new clothes with her newfound money

" 'Oh, a to buy new clothes!' she declared She ran out of the lawyer's office before anyone could stop her How she found transportation without Cleuess, except that she had her cell phone with her always these days, and Seymour was back at the house with her van Whatever the case, never sensing the irony of Aunt Queen's gentle words, she vanished

"I sat there absorbing the fact that I now had a substantial incoht, some one hundred thousand dollars a h it ca advice that I take Aunt Queen's guidance in everything

"There was so to do with Aunt Queen's advanced age, andentrusted with my income now because of my obedient nature and the fact that uidance

"I was given two credit cards on the spot, each with a line of credit of a hundred thousand, a checkbook for a checking account which would carry a rolling balance of twenty thousand dollars a month, a hty thousand a ned bank forned the credit cards as well, slipped them into my wallet, pocketed the checkbook, and my part of the transaction was over I was intoxicated with new-funded manhood

"What followed had to do with the various other employees ere left handsome amounts, of which they would soon be apprised, as Aunt Queen, appointed executrix for these, had sonated persons It onderful to hear of this The hty pleased

"Then came the description of the household trust, which had been established by the Old Man hirown enormously over the years, and its sole beneficiary was Blackwood Farht I could not understand all its complications

"That Blackwood Farm couldn't be divided, that its house could never be pulled down, that any architectural changes ns, that all ere eement and maintenance of Blackwood Manor and Blackwood Farm were to be well paid -- all this was rolled out in co security for the estate that I loved, andit very clear that the inco

"There was also considerable language about the responsibilities for the far on to me, but this was also too complicated to follow That Patsy would never own or control Blackwood Farive a damn about it

"As for the present, the pure ownership of Blackwood Fars, swarant of usufruct to Aunt Queen, hout her lifetime

"This left me astonished But immediately Aunt Queen explained the wisdoht try to bring a claiainst the land, and this hat Pops wanted to protect against Of course, she was seventy-eight (or so she said) and she wasn't going toNash Penfield Laugh ), but Pops had to do it this way to protect me

"But I couldn't help but note that Patsy didn't even have the right to live at the property, which Aunt Queen did I kept quiet about it Patsy would never know And I certainly wasn't going to put her out on the porch with her bags packed

"Besides, with her high monthly income -- some half a million -- she wasn't likely to be around much

"What funded all of our trusts were enormous investments in such diversified instru, precious n currencies, U S Treasury bills, pharinable name and description and random stocks of all kinds, from theadministered by the investment firm of Mayfair and Mayfair, in New Orleans, an ared only a handful of very select private fortunes