Unnatural Death by Dorothy L Sayers

Author:Dorothy L Sayers [Sayers, Dorothy L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, mystery, kindle
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2009-10-14T23:00:00+00:00

14

SHARP QUILLETS OF THE LAW

‘Things done without example – in their issue

Are to be feared.’

Henry VIII, 1, 2

‘Murbles is coming round to dinner tonight, Charles,’ said Wimsey. ‘I wish you’d stop and have grub with us too. I want to put all this family history business before him.’

‘Where are you dining?’

‘Oh, at the flat. I’m sick of restaurant meals. Bunter does a wonderful bloody steak and there are new peas and potatoes and genuine English grass. Gerald sent it up from Denver specially. You can’t buy it. Come along. Ye olde English fare, don’t you know, and a bottle of what Pepys calls Ho Bryon. Do you good.’

Parker accepted. But he noticed that, even when speaking on his beloved subject of food, Wimsey was vague and abstracted. Something seemed to be worrying at the back of his mind, and even when Mr Murbles appeared, full of mild legal humour, Wimsey listened to him with extreme courtesy indeed, but with only half his attention.

They were partly through dinner when, apropos of nothing, Wimsey suddenly brought his fist down on the mahogany with a crash that startled even Bunter, causing him to jerk a great crimson splash of the Haut Brion over the edge of the glass upon the tablecloth.

‘Got it!’ said Lord Peter.

Bunter, in a low shocked voice, begged his lordship’s pardon.

‘Murbles,’ said Wimsey, without heeding him, ‘isn’t there a new Property Act?’

‘Why, yes,’ said Mr Murbles, in some surprise. He had been in the middle of a story about a young barrister and a Jewish pawnbroker when the interruption occurred, and was a little put out.

‘I knew I’d read that sentence somewhere – you know, Charles – about doing away with the long-lost claimant from overseas. It was in some paper or other about a couple of years ago, and it had to do with the new Act. Of course, it said what a blow it would be to romantic novelists. Doesn’t the Act wash out the claims of distant relatives, Murbles?’

‘In a sense, it does,’ replied the solicitor. ‘Not, of course, in the case of entailed property, which has its own rules. But I understand you to refer to ordinary personal property or real estate not entailed.’

‘Yes – what happens to that, now, if the owner of the property dies without making a will?’

‘It is rather a complicated matter,’ began Mr Murbles.

‘Well, look here, first of all – before the jolly old Act was passed, the next-of-kin got it all, didn’t he – no matter if he was only a seventh cousin fifteen times removed?’

‘In a general way, that is correct. If there was a husband or wife—’

‘Wash out the husband and wife. Suppose the person is unmarried and has no near relations living. It would have gone—’

‘To the next-of-kin, whoever that was, if he or she could be traced.’

‘Even if you had to burrow back to William the Conqueror to get at the relationship?’

‘Always supposing you could get a clear record back to so very early a date,’ replied Mr Murbles.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.