Cumberland (England) -- Fiction; Domestic fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Mothers and daughters -- Fiction
Monday, the 9th of November, was the day set down for the trial of
the case which had assumed the name of "Lovel versus Murray and
Another." This denomination had been adopted many months ago, when it
had been held to be practicable by the Lovel party to prove that the
lady who was now always called the Countess, was not entitled to bear
the name of Lovel, but was simply Josephine Murray, and her daughter
simply Anna Murray. Had there been another wife alive when the
mother was married that name and that name only could have been hers,
whether she had been the victim of the old Earl's fraud,--or had
herself been a party to it. The reader will have understood that
as the case went on the opinions of those who acted for the young
Earl, and more especially the opinion of the young Earl himself, had
been changed. Prompted to do so by various motives, they, who had
undertaken to prove that the Countess was no Countess, had freely
accorded to her her title, and had themselves entertained her
daughter with all due acknowledgment of rank and birth. Nevertheless
the name of the case remained and had become common in people's
mouths. The very persons who would always speak of the Countess Lovel
spoke also very familiarly of the coming trial in "Lovel v. Murray,"
and now the 9th of November had come round and the case of "Lovel v.
Murray and Another" was to be tried. The nature of the case was
this. The two ladies, mother and daughter, had claimed the personal
property of the late lord as his widow and daughter. Against that
claim Earl Lovel made his claim, as heir-at-law, alleging that there
was no widow, and no legitimate child. The case had become infinitely
complicated by the alleged existence of the first wife,--in which
case she as widow would have inherited. But still the case went on
as Lovel v. Murray,--the Lovel so named being the Earl, and not the
alleged Italian widow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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