"I've got an open mind, sir. What's your feeling on the subject?"
"I haven't an idea. My instinct always prompted me to disbelieve any statement Carter made, but in this case I've nothing to go on, beyond the fact that Mrs. Carter doesn't seem ever to have set much store by the aunt. A rich aunt, conveniently mad, and hidden from sight in an asylum, sounds suspiciously unlikely to me."
"Yes, it does," agreed Hemingway. "All the same, he went so far as to say that she lived in Chipston."
"H'm! Giving a local habitation and a name to an airy nothing, perhaps."
"Look here, sir, I don't want a job's comforter, if it's all the same to you!" protested Hemingway. "What I do want, on the other hand, is a bit of expert information. You told Miss Cliffe in my presence, the day before yesterday, that there was no question of her inheriting this aunt's money."
"I did."
"I take it you're sure of your facts, sir?"
"Quite sure. According to what Carter let fall from time to time, she became insane before she had made a Will. The Law regarding intestacy is perfectly clear."
"Would it be bothering you if I were to ask you to tell me this Law, sir?"
"Not at all. When an intestate dies, leaving no issue, and his parents having predeceased him, the relations who can inherit his fortune are first, brothers and sisters of the whole blood, or their issue; second, brothers and sisters of the half-blood, or their issue; third, the grandparents, in equal shares; fourth, uncles and aunts of the whole blood of the intestate's parents, or their issue; and fifth, uncles and aunts of the half-blood of the intestate's parents, or '