Transcriber’s Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
On page 117, "Mrs. Thipps's forehead" should possibly be "Mr. Thipps's forehead."
Whose Body?
Whose Body?
DOROTHY L. SAYERS
A Lord Peter Wimsey Novel
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS
WHOSE BODY?
Copyright, 1923, by Dorothy Sayers
Printed in the United States of America
All rights in this book are reserved.
No part of the book may be used or reproducedin any manner whatsoever without written permissionexcept in the case of brief quotationsembodied in critical articles and reviews. Forinformation address Harper & Brothers49 East 33rd Street, New York 16, N. Y.
The Singular Adventure of the
Man with the Golden Pince-Nez
To M. J.
Dear Jim:
This book is your fault. If it had not been for yourbrutal insistence, Lord Peter would never have staggeredthrough to the end of this enquiry. Pray considerthat he thanks you with his accustomed suavity.
Yours ever,
D. L. S.
CHAPTER I
“Oh, damn!” said Lord Peter Wimsey at PiccadillyCircus. “Hi, driver!”
The taxi man, irritated at receiving this appealwhile negotiating the intricacies of turning intoLower Regent Street across the route of a 19 ’bus, a38-B and a bicycle, bent an unwilling ear.
“I’ve left the catalogue behind,” said Lord Peterdeprecatingly. “Uncommonly careless of me. D’youmind puttin’ back to where we came from?”
“To the Savile Club, sir?”
“No—110 Piccadilly—just beyond—thank you.”
“Thought you was in a hurry,” said the man, overcomewith a sense of injury.
“I’m afraid it’s an awkward place to turn in,” saidLord Peter, answering the thought rather than thewords. His long, amiable face looked as if it had generatedspontaneously from his top hat, as white maggotsbreed from Gorgonzola.
The taxi, under the severe eye of a policeman, revolvedby slow jerks, with a noise like the grindingof teeth.
The block of new, perfect and expensive flats inwhich Lord Peter dwelt upon the second floor, stooddirectly opposite the Green Park, in a spot for manyyears occupied by the skeleton of a frustrate commercialenterprise. As Lord Peter let himself in he10heard his man’s voice in the library, uplifted in thatthrottled stridency peculiar to well-trained personsusing the te