“If they have sense they leave matters alone and let the law take its course,” answered Tutt with conviction.  “I’ve known of more trouble—!  Several instances right here in this office.  A widow found a paper with her husband’s will expressing a wish that a certain amount of money should be given to a married woman living out in Duluth.  There was nothing to indicate when the paper was written, although the will was executed only a month before he died.  Apparently the deceased hadn’t seen the lady in question for years.  I told her to forget it, but nothing would suit her but that she should send the woman a money order for the full amount—­ten thousand dollars.  She kept it, all right!  Well, the widow found out afterwards that her husband had written that paper thirty years before at a time when he was engaged to be married to that woman, that they had changed their minds and each had married happily and that the paper with some old love letters had, as usually happens, got mixed up with the will instead of having been destroyed as it should have been.  You know, it’s astonishing, the junk people keep in their safe deposit boxes!  I’ll bet that ninety-nine out of a hundred are half full of valueless and useless stuff, like old watches, grandpa’s jet cuff buttons, the letters Uncle William wrote from the Holy Land, outlawed fire insurance and correspondence that nobody will ever read,—­everything always gets mixed up together,—­and yet every paper a man leaves after his death is a possible source of confusion or trouble.  And one can’t tell how or why a person at a particular time may come to express a wish in writing.  It would be most dangerous to pay attention to it.  Suppose it was not in writing.  Morally, a wish is just as binding if spoken as if incorporated in a letter.  Would you waste any time on Sadie Burch if she came in here and told you that your father had expressed the desire that she should have twenty-five thousand dollars?  Not much!”

“I don’t suppose so!” admitted Payson.

“Another thing!” said Tutt.  “Remember this, the law would not permit you as executor of your father’s will to pay over this money, if any other than yourself were the residuary legatee.  You’d have no right to take twenty-five thousand dollars out of the estate and give it to Miss Burch at the expense of anybody else!”

“Then you say the law won’t let me pay this money to Sadie Burch whether I am willing to or not?” asked Payson.

“Not as executor.  As executor you’re absolutely obliged to carry out the terms of the will and disregard anything else.  You must preserve the estate intact and turn it over unimpaired to the residuary legatee!” repeated Tutt.

“But I am the residuary legatee!” said Payson.

“As executor you’ve got to pay it over in full to yourself as residuary legatee!” repeated Tutt stubbornly, evading the issue.

“Well, where does that leave me?” asked his client.