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The Lord Chancellor sat on the Woolsack, a backless chair with a vague resemblance to a throne, above the peers now settled in their criht honorable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament asse the great hall "We are gathered and convened with the charge of a solemn task: to determine whether or no the noble peer, your companion, the Earl of Islay, heir to the duchy of Ashbrook, should be declared lost at sea We have assumed these medieval splendors of scarlet and ermine in his honor, in response to the ‘Death in Absentia’ petition sub heir, Mr Cecil Pinkler-Ryburn, who quite fitly and rightly expresses his deepest sorrow at this tragic event"

There was a little rustle of approbation, and Mr Pinkler-Ryburn shifted uneasily in the bench just below Gisth of ermine needed to adorn the scarlet robes that would cover such a nificent stomach once the man was a duke But to do Pink (as everyone seehtest air of triuive our absent peer the title Duke of Ashbrook as a matter of courtesy," the Lord Chancellor continued, "since his honored father died after the young land and indeed, likely after his only son had already succu Earl of Islay never assumed the titles and duties to which he was heir, and never took his seat a us, in the House of Lords" He paused for breath, and to allow the weight of his words to be felt

"His as unable to grieve for him in his absence"--here he cast a paternal eye on the bent head of the countess--"and has been unable to assume the duties and responsibilities of a duchess, nor the freedom and protections of theMoreover, the duchy itself has naturally suffered without the guiding hand of its master"

Gismond had heard the opposite; in fact,hand inRyburn Weavers such a success His own lady had reupholstered the drawing room in Ryburn fabrics, and they had cost a pretty penny

The Lord Chancellor was now calling for discussion of the petition to declare the Duke of Ashbrook dead in absentia As expected, the duke’s heir, Mr Cecil Pinkler-Ryburn, begged pere He cli for a nity about hinificant "I am most deeply, and I may say with perfect truth, cruelly afflicted by the call to declare my beloved cousin lost to us in such a manner I accede to this motion only on the request of Lady Islay While I wish to avoid the duties and responsibilities of the duchy, she, of course, wishes to be free, as is only just, of the heavy burden she has carried in the absence of her husband"

Everyone in the room seemed to feel this ell put, and there was a happy allery housing the peeresses

The assembly then heard from a representative of the committee that had reviewed Mr Pinkler-Ryburn’s petition He noted that, in all, twenty Bow Street Runners had been sent to the various parts of the globe once the young earl had beenfor some years, and the only news unearthed of hi left to be said, the Lord Chancellor stepped forward again, holding in his right hand the scepter of his office "We certainly appreciate the sentilish dukedo for his predecessor"

At this, an audible giggle rose spontaneously in several parts of the room; the spectators, it seeht rather than sorrow

The Lord Chancellor ignored this lack of decoruland cannot stop the march of time, any more than they can arrest the motion of the tides or the course of the planets"

The Countess of Manderbury wore high ostrich plu across Lady Bury St Edmonds’s face Gismond narrowed his eyes Surely that metallic flash couldn’t be a pair of embroidery scissors in Lady Bury St Edmonds’s hand?

Gismond resisted the impulse to check the timepiece he had discreetly placed under his sash of office, and let the powerful voice of his lordship--who had progressed from reference to the tides to the will of heaven--wash over hi happened, an event about which Gisan with a commotion in the back of the chamber, where the Yeoman Warders were stationed in the event that so in a tardy fashion (It was deplorable, yet known to happen)

But the lateco up the aisle noas an interloper: a loves, and no wig

The Lord Chancellor broke off in thethe lost nobleman