Corpse in a Gilded Cage Read Online Free Page A

family’s never done anything for me, you know.’
    â€˜Very well,’ said Mr Lillywaite, also resuming his walk, but engineering a turn in the direction of the great house, conceivably hoping for some psychological effect from the sight of it. ‘But you must realize that, even were selling decided on—’
    â€˜It is.’
    â€˜â€”it would be far from easy to find a buyer for a mansion—one might say a palace—of this size.’
    â€˜Don’t you believe it. All these bleeding Arabs are just itching to buy up places like this. They point their prayer mats towards Buckingham Palace and pray it comes on the market.’
    â€˜But surely you wouldn’t want—’
    â€˜I wouldn’t give a monkey’s fart.’
    â€˜For the neighbourhood it would be a sad, sad blow.’
    â€˜Don’t you believe it. They’d lap it up. He’d come into residence once a year, throw open the grounds for a church bazaar, wander round in his nightshirt and hand out tenners for a slice of homemade sponge, and if I know that bunch down at the Chetton Arms they’d love every minute of it. They’d rake in a lot more shekels from Sheik Yerfanny than they would out of me and Elsie. More than they got out of the old Earl, too, I’d lay a tanner.’
    â€˜Hmm,’ said Mr Lillywaite, unwilling to admit that the Earl probably understood more about popular local reaction than he himself did. If he had been unbiased, which he was not, he would have admitted that the Earl gave his opinions with a good deal of force, and that they held more than a few grains of common sense. Indeed, down at his real local, the Prince Leopold in Clapham, the Earl’s opinions on anything under the sunwere listened to by the regulars with the sort of respect they gave the Prime Minister, appearing on the Jimmy Young Show. But Mr Lillywaite was not yet willing to admit that he had lost the argument.
    â€˜Of course, if any decision were made to sell, it ought to be the decision of the whole family. You have to remember that in this matter I in some sense represent Lord Portsea’s interests as well.’
    â€˜Whose? Oh—Phil’s.’
    â€˜Your elder son’s.’
    â€˜Oh well, Phil will be easy. He’ll go along with anything I decide. He’s a good chap—never the sort to make trouble. You’d like Phil. I’ll introduce you when he gets out.’
    Mr Lillywaite’s eyebrows rose a fraction, but he had an inkling he had discovered a straw worth clutching on to.
    â€˜These are, you realize, things that both he and his heirs in their turn are vitally concerned in. Do I gather you have not discussed them with him yet?’
    â€˜No, I haven’t. Quite apart from the fact that discussion with Phil isn’t that easy at the moment, I never thought of it. I didn’t discuss it with him when we sold the house in Hackney and bought the house in Clapham, and I shan’t discuss it with him when I sell this place neither. He wouldn’t expect it.’
    â€˜Nevertheless, he has his rights. As heir presumptive he has clearly defined rights. I think it might be as well if I talked to him. You have no objections?’
    â€˜None at all. Visiting days are Mondays and Thursdays.’
    â€˜I feel sure the governor of Daintree will admit me whenever I care to appoint a time,’ said Mr Lillywaite stiffly.
    â€˜Pals, eh? Yes, well, it’s quite convenient Daintree being only thirty-five miles away. Dixie was going yesterday, then stopping the night in Bristol and coming on here this morning.’
    â€˜Ah—Lady Portsea.’
    â€˜That’s the ticket. Mind you, Dixie is another type again. A mind of her own, has Dixie. Too much so, if you believe my Elsie. Philip’ll go along with anything—happy-go-lucky type, open as the day is long. But you never know with Dixie—I haven’t the faintest idea how