Ripeness is All — Eric Linklater

When the celibate Major Gander, C.B., T.D. sold out the family toffee business to American Candy Inc., he was able to retire in comfort. And when he dies from heart failure (it was after a strenuous shoot at the Brackens' Rife Meeting) his gathered relatives found that the thought of his will moderated their grief considerably. For they all felt well placed for at least a few thousand to help them cultivate their favorite virtues and vices! But it was not to be so simple. The Major, they soon discovered, had made his choice of legatee dependent on the most preposterous condition…