"But go on—let's know all about it; we sha'n't hear what he has got to say at all, at this rate."
"Well, as I was saying, or about to say, the nephew, as soon as he heard his uncle was dead, comes and claps his seal upon everything in the house."
"But, could he do so?" inquired one of the guests.
"I don't see what was to hinder him," replied a third. "He could do so, certainly."
"But there was a son, and, as I take it, a son's nearer than a nephew any day."
"But the son is illegitimate."
"Legitimate, or illegitimate, a son's a son; don't bother me about distinction of that sort; why, now, there was old Weatherbit—"
"Order, order."
"Let's hear the tale."
"Very good, gentlemen, I'll go on, if I ain't to be interrupted; but I'll say this, that an illegitimate son is no son, in the eyes of the law; or at most he's an accident quite, and ain't what he is, and so can't inherit."