Detective and mystery stories; English fiction -- 19th century
We have now arrived at a point in this extraordinary case at which
I must again direct your attention to the will of the late Mr.
Boleton. By this will 25,000_l_. was, as we have seen, bequeathed
to Miss Boleton (afterwards Mrs. Anderton), with a life interest,
after her death, to her husband. At his decease, and failing children
by his marriage with Miss Boleton, the money passed to the second
sister, whom, as I have before said, we may, I think, be justified in
identifying with the late Madame R**. It seems, at all events, clear,
both from the circumstances attending the marriage of the Baron, and
from the observation made by him at Bognor to Dr. Marsden relative to
the pecuniary loss he would have sustained by the death of his wife,
that the Baron himself believed and was prepared to maintain this
relationship, and that the various policies of assurance effected on
the life of Madame R**--to the gross amount of 25,000_l_., the exact
sum in question,--were intended to cover any risk of her death before
that of her sister. This is all that we need at present require. What
import should be attached to the degree of mystery with which the whole
affair both of the marriage and of the assurance seems to have been
so carefully surrounded will, of course, be matter for consideration
when reviewing the whole circumstances of the case. It is enough for
our present purpose that the Baron clearly looked upon his wife as the
sister of Mrs. Anderton, and calculated upon participation, through
her, in the legacy of Mr. Boleton. The lives of Mr. and Mrs. Anderton
thus alone intervened between this legacy and the Baron's family, and
we have thus established, on his part, a direct interest in their
decease.
On the death of Mrs. Anderton, under the circumstances detailed in an
earlier portion of the case, the life of her husband only now stood
in the way of Baron R**'s succession, and it is important to bear
this in mind in considering, as we are now about to do, the various
circumstances attendant on the death of that gentleman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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