The Two Admirals Read Free Page A

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—?"
    "Descended from a bastard of the second baronet, and out of the line of
descent, altogether."
    "But the Wychecombes of Hertfordshire, I have always heard were of our
family, and legitimate."
    "True, as regards matrimony—rather too much of it, by the way. They
branched off in 1487, long before the creation, and have nothing to do
with the entail; the first of their line coming from old Sir Michael
Wychecombe, Kt. and Sheriff of Devonshire, by his second wife Margery;
while we are derived from the same male ancestor, through Wycherly, the
only son by Joan, the first wife. Wycherly, and Michael, the son of
Michael and Margery, were of the half-blood, as respects each other, and
could not be heirs of blood. What was true of the ancestors is true of
the descendants."
    "But we came of the same ancestor, and the estate is far older than
1487."
    "Quite true, brother; nevertheless, the half-blood can't take; so says
the perfection of human reason."
    "I never could understand these niceties of the law," said Sir Wycherly,
sighing; "but I suppose they are all right. There are so many
Wychecombes scattered about England, that I should think some one among
them all might be my heir!"
    "Every man of them bears a bar in his arms, or is of the half-blood."
    "You are quite sure, brother, that Tom is a
filius nullus
?" for the
baronet had forgotten most of the little Latin he ever knew, and
translated this legal phrase into "no son."
    "
Filius nullius
, Sir Wycherly, the son of nobody; your reading would
literally make Tom nobody; whereas, he is only the son of nobody."
    "But, brother, he is your son, and as like you, as two hounds of the
same litter."
    "I am
nullus
, in the eye of the law, as regards poor Tom; who, until
he marries, and has children of his own, is altogether without legal
kindred. Nor do I know that legitimacy would make Tom any better; for he
is presuming and confident enough for the heir apparent to the throne,
as it is."
    "Well, there's this young sailor, who has been so much at the station
lately, since he was left ashore for the cure of his wounds. 'Tis a most
gallant lad; and the First Lord has sent him a commission, as a reward
for his good conduct, in cutting out the Frenchman. I look upon him as a
credit to the name; and I make no question, he is, some way or other, of
our family."
    "Does he claim to be so?" asked the judge, a little quickly, for he
distrusted men in general, and thought, from all he had heard, that some
attempt might have been made to practise on his brother's simplicity. "I
thought you told me that he came from the American colonies?"
    "So he does; he's a native of Virginia, as was his father before him."
    "A convict, perhaps; or a servant, quite likely, who