my good sir; only your _half_
brother; of the _half_, and not of the _whole_ blood."

"What of that--what of that?--your father would have been my father--we
would have had the same name--the same family history--the same family
_feelings_--poh! poh!--we should have been both Wychecombes, exactly as
we are to-day."

"Quite true, and yet I could not have been your heir, nor you mine. The
estate would escheat to the king, Hanoverian or Scotchman, before it
came to me. Indeed, to _me_ it could never come."

"Thomas, you are trifling with my ignorance, and making matters worse
than they really are. Certainly, as long as you lived, you would be _my_
heir!"

"Very true, as to the L20,000 in the funds, but not as to the baronetcy
and Wychecombe. So far as the two last are concerned, I am heir of
blood, and of entail, of the body of Sir Wycherly Wychecombe, the first
baronet, and the maker of the entail."

"Had there been no entail, and had I died a child, who would have
succeeded our father, supposing there had been two mothers?"

"I, as the next surviving son."

"There!--I knew it must be so!" exclaimed Sir Wycherly, in triumph; "and
all this time you have been joking with me!"

"Not so fast, brother of mine--not so fast. I should be of the _whole_
blood, as respected our father, and all the Wychecombes that have gone
before him; but of the _half_-blood, as respected _you_. From our father
I might have taken, as his heir-at-law: but from _you_, never, having
been of the _half_-blood."

"I would have made a will, in that case, Thomas, and left you every
farthing," said Sir Wycherly, with feeling.

"That is just what I wish you to do with Sir Reginald Wychecombe. You
must take him; a _filius nullius_, in the person of my son Tom; a
stranger; or let the property escheat; for, we are so peculiarly placed
as not to have a known relative, by either the male or female lines; the
maternal ancestors being just as barren of heirs as the paternal. Our
good mother was the natural daughter of the third Earl of Prolific; our
grandmother was the last of her race, so far as human ken can discover;
our great-grandmother is said to have had semi-royal blood in her veins,
without the aid of the church, and beyond that it would be hopeless to
attempt tracing consanguinity on that side of the house. No, Wycherly;
it is Sir Reginald who has the best right to the land; Tom, or one of
his brothers, an utter stranger, or His Majesty, fol