"I don't think very much of entails myself," said the squire. "If a man has a property he should be able to leave it as he pleases; or—or else he doesn't have it."
"That is what the law intends, I suppose," said Harry.
"Just so; but the law is such an old woman that she never knows how to express herself to any purpose. I haven't allowed the law to bind me. I dare say you know the story."
"About your two sons,—and the property? I think all the world knows the story."
"I suppose it has been talked about a little," said the squire, with a chuckle. "My object has been to prevent the law from handing over my property to the fraudulent claims which my son's creditors were enabled to make, and I have succeeded fairly well. On that head I have nothing to regret. Now your uncle is going to take other means."
"Yes; he is going to take means which, are, at any rate, lawful."
"But which will be tedious, and may not, perhaps, succeed. He is intending to have an heir of his own."
"That I believe is his purpose," said Harry.
"There is no reason why he shouldn't;—but he mayn't, you know."
"He is not married yet."