‘It was a happy thing for me, Mr. Pitwinnoch,’ said the Leddy, after
being seated in his inner chamber--‘a happy thing, indeed, that I had
a father, and sic a father as he was. Weel kent he the rights o’ the
law; so that I may say I was brought up at the feet o’ Gamaliel. But
the bed and board plea, Mr. Pitwinnoch, that ye thought sae lightly o’,
and wanted me to mak a sacrifice o’ wi’ an arbitration, was bairn’s
play to the case I hae noo in hand. Ye maun ken, then, that I hae ta’en
a suspektion in my head, that Milrookit--the de’il rook him for what
he did to me--has nae right because to keep, in a wrongous manner,
my gudeman’s estate and property o’ the Kittlestonheugh. ’Deed, Mr.
Pitwinnoch, ye may glower; but it’s my intent and purpose to gar him
surrender at discretion, in due course of law. So he’ll see what it
is to deal wi’ a woman o’ my legality. In short, Mr. Pitwinnoch, I’ll
mak him fin’ that I’m a statute at large; for, as I said before, the
thousand pounds was but erles, and a foretaste, that I hae been oure
lang, Mr. Pitwinnoch, of going to law.’
‘You surprise me, Madam,--I cannot understand what you mean,’ replied
the astonished lawyer.
‘Your surprise, and having no understanding, Mr. Pitwinnoch, is a
symptom to me that ye’re no qualified to conduct my case; but, before
going to Thomas Whitteret, who, as I am creditably informed, is a man
o’ a most great capacity, I thought it was but right to sound the depth
o’ your judgement and learning o’ the law; and if I found you o’ a
proper sufficiency, to gie you a preferment, ’cause ye were my agent in
the last plea.’
‘But, Madam,’ said the astonished lawyer, ‘how can you possibly have
fancied that Mr. Milrookit has not, in right of his wife, properly
succeeded to the estate?’
‘Because she’s no a male-heir--being in terms of the act--but a woman.
What say ye to that? Is na that baith a nice point and a ground of
action? Na, ye need na look sae constipated, Mr. Pitwinnoch, for the
heirs-general o’ Margaret, the dochter, hae a better right than the
heir-at-law o’ George, the third and last son, the same being an
heir-female.’
‘In the name of goodness, where have you, Madam, collected all this
stuff?’
‘Stuff! Mr. Pitwinnoch, is that the way to speak o’ my legality?
Howsever, since ye’re sae dumfoundert, I’ll just be as plain’s am
pleasant wi’ you. Stuff truly! I think Mr. Whitteret’s the man for me.’
‘I beg your pardon, Mrs. Walkinshaw; but I wish you would be a little
more explicit, and come to the point.’
‘Have na I come to ae point already, anent the male-heir?’
‘True, Madam,’ said the lawyer; ‘but even, admitting all you have
stated to be perfectly correct, Mr. Milrookit then has the right in
himself, for you know it is to the heirs-general of his mother, and not
to herself, that the property goes.’
‘Ye need na tell me that. Do you think I dinna ken that he’s an
heir-general to his mother, being her only child? Ye mak light, I
canna but say, o’ my understanding, Mr. Pitwinnoch. Howsever, is’t
no plain that his wife, not being an heir-male, is debarred frae
succeeding; and, he being an heir-general, cannot, according to the
law of the case, succeed? Surely, Mr. Pitwinnoch, that’s no to be
contested? Therefore, I maintain that he is lawfully bound to renounce
the property, and that he shall do the morn’s morning if there’s a
toun-officer in Glasgow.’
‘But, Madam, you have no possible right to it,’ exclaimed the lawyer,
puzzled.
‘Me! am I a male-heir? an aged woman, and a grandmother! Surely, Mr.
Pitwinnoch, your education maun hae been greatly neglekit, to ken so
little o’ the laws o’ nature and nations. No: the heir-male is a young
man, the eldest son’s only son.’
The lawyer began to quake for his client as the Leddy proceeded,--
‘For ye ken that the deed of entail was first on Walter, the second
son; and, failing his heirs-male, then on George and his heirs-male;
and, failing them, then it went back to Charles the eldest son, and to
his heirs-male; if there’s law in the land, his only son ought to be an
heir-male, afore Milrookit’s wife that’s but an only dochter.’
‘Has Mr. Whitteret put this into your head?--he was bred wi’ Keelevin,
who drew up the deed,’ said the lawyer seriously, struck with the
knowledge which the Leddy seemed to have so miraculously acquired of
the provisions of the entail.
‘I dinna need Mr. Whitteret, nor ony siclike, to instruct me in terms
o’ law--for I got an inkling and an instinct o’ the whole nine points
frae my worthy father, that was himsel bred an advocate, and had more
law-pleas on his hands when he died than ony ither three lairds in
Carrick, Coil, and Cunningham. But no to be my own trumpeter--ye’ll
just, Mr. Pitwinnoch, write a mandamus to Milrookit, in a civil
manner--mind that; and tell him in the same, that I’ll be greatly
obligated if he’ll gie up the house and property of Kittlestonheugh to
the heir-male, James Walkinshaw, his cousin; or, failing therein, ye’ll
say that I hae implemented you to pronounce an interlocutor against
him; and ye may gie him a bit hint frae yoursel--in a noty beny at the
bottom--that you advise him to conform, because you are creditably
informed that I mean to pursue him wi’ a’ the law o’ my displeasure.’
‘Does your grandson know any thing of this extraordinary business?’
said Pitwinnoch; but the Leddy parried the question by saying,--
‘That’s no our present sederunt; but I would ask you, if ye do not
think I hae the justice o’ this plea?’
‘Indeed, Madam, to say the truth, I shall not be surprised if you have;
but there is no need to be so peremptory--the business may be as well
settled by an amicable arrangement.’
‘What’s the use of an amicable arrangement? Is na the law the law?
Surely I did na come to a lawyer for sic dowf and dowie proceedings
as amicable arrangements--no, Mr. Pitwinnoch, ye see yoursel that I
hae decern’t on the rights o’ the case, and therefore (for I maun be
short wi’ you, for talking to me o’ amicable arrangements) ye may
save your breath to cool your porridge; my will and pleasure is, that
Walkinshaw Milrookit shall do to-morrow morning--in manner of law--then
and there--dispone and surrender unto the heir-male of the late Claud
Walkinshaw of Kittlestonheugh, in the shire o’ Lanark, and synod
of Glasgow and Ayr--all and sundry the houses and lands aforesaid,
according to the provisions of an act made and passed in the reign of
our Sovereign Lord the King. Ye see, Mr. Pitwinnoch, that I’m no a daw
in barrow’t feathers, to be picket and pooket in the way I was by sic
trash as the Milrookits.’
The Leddy, having thus instructed her lawyer, bade him adieu, and
returned home, leaning on her maid’s arm, and on the best possible
terms with herself, scarcely for a moment doubting a favourable result
to a proceeding that in courtesy we must call her second law-suit.