dame Evangelista gave her closest
attention to the reading of the documents. After listening to the
guardianship account, most ably written out by Solonet, in which
Natalie's share of the three million and more francs left by Monsieur
Evangelista was shown to be the much-debated eleven hundred and
fifty-six thousand, Madame Evangelista said to the heedless young
couple:--

"Come, listen, listen, my children; this is your marriage contract."

The clerk drank a glass of iced-water, Solonet and Mathias blew their
noses, Paul and Natalie looked at the four personages before them,
listened to the preamble, and returned to their chatter. The statement
of the property brought by each party; the general deed of gift in
the event of death without issue; the deed of gift of one-fourth in
life-interest and one-fourth in capital without interest, allowed by
the Code, whatever be the number of the children; the constitution of a
common fund for husband and wife; the settlement of the diamonds on the
wife, the library and horses on the husband, were duly read and passed
without observations. Then followed the constitution of the entail.
When all was read and nothing remained but to sign the contract, Madame
Evangelista demanded to know what would be the ultimate effect of the
entail.

"An entail, madam," replied Solonet, "means an inalienable right to
the inheritance of certain property belonging to both husband and wife,
which is settled from generation to generation on the eldest son of
the house, without, however, depriving him of his right to share in the
division of the rest of the property."

"What will be the effect of this on my daughter's rights?"

Maitre Mathias, incapable of disguising the truth, replied:--

"Madame, an entail being an appanage, or portion of property set aside
for this purpose from the fortunes of husband and wife, it follows that
if the wife dies first, leaving several children, one of them a son,
Monsieur de Manerville will owe those children three hundred and
sixty thousand francs only, from which he will deduct his fourth in
life-interest and his fourth in capital. Thus his debt to those
children will be reduced to one hundred and sixty thousand francs, or
thereabouts, exclusive of his savings and profits from the common fund
constituted for husband and wife. If, on the contrary, he dies first,
leaving a male heir, Madame de Manerville has a right to three hundred
and sixty thousand francs only