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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: 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
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