I feel they will be better off without the wealth which would tempt my son to relax his efforts to make a useful man of himself and would cause my daughter to be sought for her fortune instead of for herself." "That may quiet gossip against your children," said Torrey, when he had taken down Hiram's slowly enunciated words, "but it does not change the extraordinary character of the will." "John," said Hiram, "can you think of a single instance in which inherited wealth has been a benefit, a single case where a man has become more of a man than he would if he hadn't had it ?" Hiram waited long.

Torrey finally said: "That may be, but--" But what?
Torrey did not know, and so came to a full stop.
"I've been trying for weeks to think of one," continued Hiram, "and whenever I thought I'd found one, I'd see, on looking at all the facts, that it only _seemed_ to be so.

And I recalled nearly a hundred instances right here in Saint X where big inheritances or little had been ruinous." "I have never thought on this aspect of the matter before," said Torrey.
"But to bring children up in the expectation of wealth, and then to leave them practically nothing, looks to me like--like cheating them." "It does, John," Hiram answered.

"I've pushed my boy and my girl far along the broad way that leads to destruction.

I must take the consequences.