2.—As to yourself.
You are also the heir of your maternal grandfather, a good old man whose possessions will surely fall to you, for he has grown imbecile, and is therefore incapable of making a will.
You are an amiable man, but you have been very dissipated in your youth. Besides, you are fifty-nine years old, and your head is bald, resembling a bare knee in the middle of a gray wig.
III.—A dowry of three hundred thousand.
IV.—Caroline’s only sister, a little dunce of twelve, a sickly child, who bids fair to fill an early grave.
V.—Your own fortune, father-in-law (in certain kinds of society they say papa father-in-law) yielding an income of twenty thousand, and which will soon be increased by an inheritance.
VI.—Your wife’s fortune, which will be increased by two inheritances —from her uncle and her grandfather. In all, thus:
Three inheritances and interest, 750,000
Your fortune, 250,000
Your wife’s fortune, 250,000
_________
Total, 1,250,000
which surely cannot take wing!