Had he done nothing at all, had he simply behaved as a decent son and waited, he would have inherited everything, in time, exactly as Henry originally intended.

His greed did not merely fail to gain him the money.

His greed was the precise instrument of its loss.

He built an elaborate machine to steal what was already going to be given to him, and the machine, when he switched it on, did only one thing.

It took the gift away.

I never claimed a dollar of that money.

It was never mine to claim; Henry’s amendment had already determined where it would go.