do you mean a boy or a girl?”
“They may be all girls for what I know, or all boys; besides, I don’t care which it is. A girl would probably do best with it. Only you’d have to see that she married some decent fellow; you’d be her guardian.”
“Pooh, nonsense,” said the doctor. “Louis will be five-and-twenty in a year or two.”
“In about four years.”
“And for all that’s come and gone yet, Scatcherd, you are not going to leave us yourself quite so soon as all that.”
“Not if I can help it, doctor; but that’s as may be.”
“The chances are ten to one that such a clause in your will will never come to bear.”
“Quite so, quite so. If I die, Louis Philippe won’t; but I thought it right to put in something to prevent his squandering it all before he comes to his senses.”
“Oh! quite right, quite right. I think I would have named a later age than twenty-five.”
“So would not I. Louis Philippe will be all right by that time. That’s my lookout. And now, doctor, you know my will; and if I die tomorrow, you will know what I want you to do for me.”
“You have merely said the eldest child, Scatcherd?”
“That’s all; give it here, and I’ll read it to you.”
“No, no; never mind. The eldest child! You should be more particular, Scatcherd; you should, indeed. Consider what an enormous interest may have to depend on those words.”
“Why, what the devil could I say? I don’t know their names; never even heard them. But the eldest is the eldest, all the world over. Perhaps I ought to say the youngest, seeing that I am only a railway contractor.”
Scatcherd began to think that the doctor might now as well go away and leave him to the society of Winterbones and the brandy; but, much as our friend had before expressed himself in a hurry, he now seemed inclined to move very leisurely. He sat there by the bedside, resting his hands on his knees and gazing unconsciously at the counterpane. At last he gave a deep sigh, and then he said, “Scatcherd, you must be more particular in this. If I am to have anything to do with it, you must, indeed, be more explicit.”
“Why, how the deuce can I be more explicit? Isn’t her eldest living child plain enough, whether he be Jack, or she be Gill?”
“What did your lawyer say to this, Scatcherd?”
“Lawyer! You don’t suppose I let my lawyer know what I was putting. No; I got the form and the paper, and all that from him, and had him here, in one room, while Winterbones and I did it in another. It’s all right enough. Though Winterbones wrote it, he did it in such a way he did not know what he was writing.”
The doctor sat a while longer, still looking at the counterpane, and then got up to depart. “I’ll see you again soon,” said he; “tomorrow, probably.”
“Tomorrow!” said Sir Roger, not at all understanding why Dr Thorne should talk of returning so soon. “Tomorrow! why I ain’t so bad as that, man, am I? If you come so often as that you’ll ruin me.”
“Oh, not as a medical man; not as that; but about this will, Scatcherd. I must think if over; I must, indeed.”
“You need not give yourself the least trouble in the world about my will till I’m dead; not the least. And who knows—maybe, I may be settling your affairs yet; eh, doctor? looking after your niece when you’re dead and gone, and getting a husband for her, eh? Ha! ha! ha!”
And then, without further speech, the doctor went his way.
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