“How, not necessary, my dear?”
“In this way: Leonidas Force, who is but twenty-one, can afford to wait two years and marry Wynnette, who will then be of marriageable age. They can live at Greenbushes, and in due course of time they can succeed us here at Mondreer.”
“But Mondreer is the heritage of our eldest daughter.”
“Not necessarily; not by entail, only by tradition and custom. You can leave your estate to whom you please; though, of course, you need not think of leaving it to any one; for you may hold it yourself for fifty years to come. You are not forty, and you may live to be ninety. But when you do leave it, it would be better to leave it to Wynnette.”
“And—Odalite?”
“You lose sight of one matter, dear Abel—the future possibilities of our eldest daughter.”
“I—do not quite understand. Anglesea, I know, has no very great expectations from any quarter, and so if he should marry Odalite they may need Mondreer; and Anglesea has promised to take the family name that it may go down with the estate.”
“I think I can show you that the estate of Mondreer can be secured to the Forces by the marriage of Leonidas Force with our second daughter, much better than it ever could be by the marriage of any one, whether Leonidas Force, Angus Anglesea, or another, with our eldest daughter.”
“I wish you would tell me, then, dear, for I am in a maze.”
“Have you forgotten that the Earldom of Enderby, failing male heirs, descends to the female line? ‘falls to the distaff,’ as old writers call it?”