'I am sure of it—I am sure of it,' said Uncle Bat; 'but everybody can't be A 1; and a man can't make everybody his heir.'
Alaric pricked up his ears. So after all Captain Cuttwater was right in calling his communication important. But what business had Captain Cuttwater to talk of making new heirs?—had he not declared that the Woodwards were his heirs?
'I have got a little money, Mr. Alaric,' he went on saying in a low modest tone, very different from that he ordinarily used; 'I have got a little money—not much—and it will of course go to my niece here.'
'Of course,' said Alaric.
'That is to say—it will go to her children, which is all the same thing.'
'Quite the same thing,' said Alaric.
'But my idea is this: if a man has saved a few pounds himself, I think he has a right to give it to those he loves best. Now I have no children of my own.'
Alaric declared himself aware of the fact.
'And I suppose I shan't have any now.'
'Not if you don't marry,' said Alaric, who felt rather at a loss for a proper answer. He could not, however, have made a better one.