When reading the first chapter, I was struck by the paragraph which details what the old gentleman left for Mr. Dashwood and his family. It seems unfair that he left Norland to John and Harry through the elder Mr. Dashwood, and so little for the girls. Did he know that the girls virtually had nothing, while John and Fanny and Harry had money of their own? Was he more generous with them because they were male, and the Dashwood girl were female. And if he did know that they had virtually nothing, why didn't he leave them more than 1000 each? Was he expecting the elder Mr. Dashwood to outlive him by more than a year?