"That would have been a great improvement on the law of descents—I hope you wouldn't have overlooked the ancestors."
"Not I—everybody would have got his rights. They tell me poor Charles never spoke after he was shot; but I dare say, did we know the truth, he regretted sincerely that he never married."
"There, for once, Wycherly, I think you are likely to be wrong. A femme sole without food, is rather a helpless sort of a person."
"Well, well, I wish he had married. What would it have been to me, had he left a dozen widows?"
"It might have raised some awkward questions as to dowry; and if each left a son, the title and estates would have been worse off than they are at present, without widows or legitimate children."
"Any thing would be better than having no heir. I believe I'm the first baronet of Wychecombe who has been obliged to make a will!"
"Quite likely," returned the brother, drily; "I remember to have got nothing from the last one, in that way. Charles and Gregory fared no better. Never mind, Wycherly, you behaved like a father to us all."
"I don't mind signing cheques, in the least; but wills have an irreligious appearance, in my eyes. There are a good many Wychecombes, in England; I wonder some of them are not of our family! They tell me a hundredth cousin is just as good an heir, as a first-born son."
"Failing nearer of kin. But we have no hundredth cousins of the whole blood."
"There are the Wychecombes of Surrey, brother Thomas—?"