‘Stuff! Mr. Pitwinnoch, is that the way to speak o’ my legality? Howsever, since ye’re sae dumfoundert, I’ll just be as plain’s am pleasant wi’ you. Stuff truly! I think Mr. Whitteret’s the man for me.’
‘I beg your pardon, Mrs. Walkinshaw; but I wish you would be a little more explicit, and come to the point.’
‘Have na I come to ae point already, anent the male-heir?’
‘True, Madam,’ said the lawyer; ‘but even, admitting all you have stated to be perfectly correct, Mr. Milrookit then has the right in himself, for you know it is to the heirs-general of his mother, and not to herself, that the property goes.’
‘Ye need na tell me that. Do you think I dinna ken that he’s an heir-general to his mother, being her only child? Ye mak light, I canna but say, o’ my understanding, Mr. Pitwinnoch. Howsever, is’t no plain that his wife, not being an heir-male, is debarred frae succeeding; and, he being an heir-general, cannot, according to the law of the case, succeed? Surely, Mr. Pitwinnoch, that’s no to be contested? Therefore, I maintain that he is lawfully bound to renounce the property, and that he shall do the morn’s morning if there’s a toun-officer in Glasgow.’
‘But, Madam, you have no possible right to it,’ exclaimed the lawyer, puzzled.
‘Me! am I a male-heir? an aged woman, and a grandmother! Surely, Mr. Pitwinnoch, your education maun hae been greatly neglekit, to ken so little o’ the laws o’ nature and nations. No: the heir-male is a young man, the eldest son’s only son.’
The lawyer began to quake for his client as the Leddy proceeded,—
‘For ye ken that the deed of entail was first on Walter, the second son; and, failing his heirs-male, then on George and his heirs-male; and, failing them, then it went back to Charles the eldest son, and to his heirs-male; if there’s law in the land, his only son ought to be an heir-male, afore Milrookit’s wife that’s but an only dochter.’