Plot
John Scarborough, owner of a large landed property
in Hertfordshire, resented the restrictions of the law of entail. He
accordingly devised a scheme whereby he was able by a double marriage, one before
and one after the birth of his eldest son, to declare him legitimate or not, as
the future might make desirable. This eldest son, Mountjoy, was a weak, easily
led wastrel who developed into an inveterate gambler, and so encumbered the
estate with postobits that at his father's death it
would have gone to the moneylenders. The father, who valued his estate above
his honor then declared Mountjoy illegitimate, producing the certificate of the
second marriage in proof. The post-obits now being valueless he quietly bought
them up, once again making the estate unencumbered.
Augustus, the second son, finding himself an heir,
soon enraged his father by exhibiting an unseemly haste to enter into his
inheritance. To punish him, John made a new will, giving Mountjoy all his
property except that covered by the entail, and leaving Augustus only the
skeleton of the estate, with no money to maintain it. Not satisfied in thus
dashing his younger son's hopes, he then produced the first marriage
certificate, making Mountloy heir under the entail.
At his father's death, Mountjoy, again in funds, departed for
GEROULD,
WINIFRED GREGORY;
A GUIDE TO TROLLOPE.
© 1948 Princeton University Press,
1976 renewed PUP
Reprinted by permission of
Url: http://www.anthonytrollope.com/
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés
López
©Davinia Moreno Arroyo
Universitat de Valčncia
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