Mason smiled affably, the smile taking some of the sting from his words, and said, 'But I didn't.'
'Didn't what?' Hedley asked.
'Ask your opinion,' Mason said.
Hedley flushed.
'Well,' Mrs. Hedley said, 'we're here. What do you have to tell us, Mr. Mason?'
'Nothing,' Mason said.
'Nothing?'
Mason spread his hands in a gesture.
'Well, why are we here?' Fred Hedley asked.
'I thought perhaps you'd tell me,' Mason said.
The trio exchanged glances.
Desere Ellis said, 'Kerry Dutton called me last night. He told me that the time was approaching when 'the trust would be terminated, that he had retained you as his attorney and suggested that it might be a good plan for me to drop in and see you just to get acquainted.'
'He suggested you bring the Hedleys?'
'No, that was my idea.'
'Why,' Mrs. Hedley asked, 'would he need an attorney to terminate the trust if the money is all gone and-I suppose, of course, there will be accurate accounts submitted. Then all he has to do is to turn over whatever balance there may be and Desere will give him a receipt.'
'Oh, there are lots of legal gimmicks in a thing of this sort,' Fred Hedley said. 'I can see why he thought he'd need an attorney, but I don't see why he wanted Desere to come in at this time.'
'Perhaps it didn't occur to him that the three of you were coming,' Mason said.
'Well, you may have a point there,' Hedley admitted. 'We thought, of course, from the way the message was received that you were going to make some announcement. There is, as I figure it, somewhere around fifteen thousand dollars left, and while that's not enough to carry out the plan we had in mind, it could be a start in the right direction. Desere, of course, would have to make some sacrifices, but she's going to have to anyway. Personally, I think it's a damn shame Desere frittered away all this money on frivolities when it could have served a really useful purpose.'
'You estimate there's fifteen thousand dollars left?' Mason asked.
'In the trust? Yes.'
'Just how do you figure?'
'Well, we know the amount of the original trust. We know what Desere has taken out and we can figure just about what the income should have been.'
'How much have you been getting during the last twelve months?' Mason asked Desere. 'I take it there's no secret about it.'
'Heavens, no,' she said. 'I've had just about all of it.' And then looking at him sharply, said, 'You should know, as Kerry's attorney.'
'I've just had one preliminary talk with him so far,' Mason said. 'I haven't gone into details.'
'You're preparing an accounting?'
'Not yet.'
'Well,' she said, 'I've been getting just about two thousand dollars a month for the past four years. But the last couple of months Kerry has intimated there will be a balance to be distributed on the termination of the trust. So I did a little figuring and believe there should be around fifteen thousand dollars-perhaps a little more-because Kerry has intimated there may be a little surprise for me.'
'You haven't asked him specifically?'
'I haven't asked him much of anything,' she said somewhat wistfully. 'He calls me over the telephone and sends me checks and… he doesn't approve.'
'Of what?'
'Of the Hedleys, for one thing,' she snapped. 'Of the way I do things, for another.'
'Look here,' Mason asked, 'have you been spending two thousand dollars a month?'
'Not lately,' she said; and then after a moment, added, 'I'm running scared.'
'What do you mean?'
'I'm trying to save a little.'
'If you'd give up your apartment and live more simply, that last money that's coming in could go a long way toward getting Fred's foundation started,' Mrs. Hedley said.
Desere Ellis shook her head. 'I'm sold on it, but I'm going to use my money to take a business course and fit myself so I can make a living. I've been a playgirl long enough.'
Fred Hedley looked at her in surprise. 'You mean you're going to join the herd? You're going to become a key-pounding square?'
'I mean that I'm going to fit myself to take the responsibilities of life.'
'You would be simply a cog in a business machine,' Hedley told her reprovingly. 'In no time at all you'd lose track of your friends who are original thinkers. You'd become just another wage slave taking pothooks and slanting lines. You'd be on the outside.'
Mason grinned. 'Don't disparage secretaries, Mr. Hedley,' he said. 'They are pearls of great price and I can assure you that good ones are hard to find. These days you have to get them and train them over a long period of time. Miss Street is my right hand. I'd be lost without her.'
'Wage slaves,' Hedley snapped. 'Human dignity is entitled to something more than machine routine.'
Mason said, 'Dignity means greatness. Look it up sometime.'
He turned to Desere Ellis and said, 'I don't know why Mr. Dutton suggested you come and see me. I am going to represent Mr. Dutton. I will be glad to talk with you at any time.'
Mason placed a subtle emphasis upon the 'you.'
She nodded.
'But,' Mason said, 'I am acting as Dutton's attorney and at the moment I am not in a position to disclose anything about our relationship or about his affairs. I would want to have him present at any conversation with you.'
'Heavens,' she said, 'you don't need to keep things confidential as far as anything in connection with the trust is concerned. It's dead open and shut. I've kept books on it; I know how much I had and how much I've spent.'
'Were there any new investments?' Mason asked.
'I don't think so. Dad left the property in stocks and bonds. Kerry has had to sell them a little at a time to keep up my allowance, but there have been some dividends, some increases in value. That's part of the bookkeeping I've been doing-just checking up.'
'We've gone back over the bonds and stocks,' Hedley said, 'and figured the dividends, interest payments and selling prices.'
'I see,' Mason commented noncommittally; and then asked, 'When are you going to enroll in this business course, Miss Ellis?'
'Tomorrow,' she said.
Mason nodded approvingly and then, by his continued silence, indicated that he had nothing more to offer.
Hedley got to his feet and was promptly joined by Desere. Mrs. Hedley hesitated for a moment and then slowly arose from her chair.
'Thank you for calling,' Mason said.
Della Street held open the exit door and they marched out.
When the door had closed, Mason turned to his secretary with a worried look. 'I am probably violating all sorts of professional ethics,' he said. 'I'm afraid I'm getting swept along on the same current which has caused Kerry Dutton to lose his footing.'
'Meaning you're falling in love with the girl?' Della Street asked, smiling.
Mason said, 'I guess there's always the temptation to play God… Here's a woman who has frittered away her life and, as far as she knows, all of the money that her father left her. She's tied up with some radicals who are
