As soon as they were alone, Sir Reginald drew from his companion, by questions warily but ingeniously put, a history of all that had occurred within the last twenty-four hours; a knowledge of the really helpless state of Sir Wycherly, and of the manner in which he himself had been summoned, included.

When satisfied, he expressed a desire to see the sick man.
"By the way, Sir Reginald," said the vice-admiral, with his hand on the lock of the door, arresting his own movement to put the question; "I see, by your manner of expressing yourself, that the law has not been entirely overlooked in your education.

Do you happen to know what 'half-blood' means?
it is either a medical or a legal term, and I understand few but nautical." "You could not apply to any man in England, Sir Gervaise, better qualified to tell you," answered the Hertfordshire baronet, smiling expressively.

"I am a barrister of the Middle Temple, having been educated as a younger son, and having since succeeded an elder brother, at the age of twenty-seven; I stand in the unfortunate relation of the 'half-blood' myself, to this very estate, on which we are now conversing." Sir Reginald then proceeded to explain the law to the other, as we have already pointed it out to the reader; performing the duty succinctly, but quite clearly.
"Bless me!--bless me! Sir Reginald," exclaimed the direct-minded and _just_-minded sailor--"here must be some mistake! A fortieth cousin, or the king, take this estate before yourself, though you are directly descended from all the old Wychecombes of the times of the Plantagenets!" "Such is the common law, Sir Gervaise.

Were I Sir Wycherly's half-brother, or a son by a second wife of our common father, I could not take from _him_, although that common father had earned the estate by his own hands, or services." "This is damnable, sir--damnable--and you'll pardon me, but I can hardly believe we have such a monstrous principle in the good, honest, well-meaning laws, of good, honest, well-meaning old England!" Sir Reginald was one of the few lawyers of his time, who did not recognize the virtue of this particular provision of the common law; a circumstance that probably arose from his having so _small_ an interest now in the mysteries of the profession, and so _large_ an interest in the family estate of Wychecombe, destroyed by its _dictum_.