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Subtitles downloaded from Podnapisi.NET
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- Evening, Mr Elliott.
- Good evening.
3
00:02:23,060 --> 00:02:24,727
Brr.
4
00:02:24,770 --> 00:02:27,146
- Just sign the book, if you will?
- Yes.
5
00:02:27,898 --> 00:02:30,733
- Been keeping you busy, Mr Elliott?
- Oh, just nicely.
6
00:02:30,817 --> 00:02:33,402
Went up to Manchester on Monday,
a poisoner.
7
00:02:33,487 --> 00:02:37,073
Baby-farmer at Holloway this morning.
Very ordinary crimes, both of them.
8
00:02:37,115 --> 00:02:39,492
This one we've got for you tomorrow
is something special.
9
00:02:39,576 --> 00:02:41,327
Yes, very much so.
10
00:02:41,411 --> 00:02:43,621
Even after all my years
in the profession,
11
00:02:43,747 --> 00:02:45,831
I'm quite looking forward to him.
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00:02:45,916 --> 00:02:47,958
- Well, I must be getting along.
- Good night, Mr Elliott.
13
00:02:48,085 --> 00:02:49,794
- Good night.
- Usual cup of tea at 7:00?
14
00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:50,920
Oh, please.
15
00:02:52,089 --> 00:02:55,841
Even my lamented master,
the great Mr Barry himself
16
00:02:55,926 --> 00:02:58,344
never had the privilege
of hanging a duke.
17
00:02:58,428 --> 00:02:59,637
Yes.
18
00:02:59,763 --> 00:03:03,099
What a finale to a lifetime
in the public service.
19
00:03:03,141 --> 00:03:05,976
- "Finale"?
- Yes, I intend to retire.
20
00:03:06,103 --> 00:03:08,604
After using the silken rope,
21
00:03:08,689 --> 00:03:11,857
never again be content with hemp.
22
00:03:11,942 --> 00:03:14,443
- Quite. Well, here we are.
- Oh, thank you.
23
00:03:31,169 --> 00:03:32,920
How will he approach it?
24
00:03:32,963 --> 00:03:35,589
I should think
as the calmest you've ever known.
25
00:03:35,632 --> 00:03:38,467
Noblesse oblige, doubtless.
26
00:03:38,593 --> 00:03:43,097
A difficult client can make things
most distressing.
27
00:03:43,140 --> 00:03:45,975
Some of them tend
to be very hysterical.
28
00:03:46,017 --> 00:03:47,935
So inconsiderate.
29
00:03:48,019 --> 00:03:51,981
Well, Colonel, considering
the importance of the occasion,
30
00:03:52,023 --> 00:03:54,150
I shall retire early.
31
00:03:54,276 --> 00:03:58,779
The last execution of a duke in this
country was very badly bungled.
32
00:03:58,822 --> 00:04:01,449
That was in the old days of the axe,
of course.
33
00:04:01,491 --> 00:04:02,825
Yes.
34
00:04:03,660 --> 00:04:06,328
Oh, I... I almost forgot.
35
00:04:06,455 --> 00:04:09,457
Um, you must forgive my ignorance
36
00:04:09,499 --> 00:04:12,501
but when we meet in the morning,
37
00:04:12,544 --> 00:04:15,045
what is the correct form of address?
38
00:04:15,172 --> 00:04:17,548
- Your Lordship?
- Your Grace.
39
00:04:17,674 --> 00:04:21,010
"Your Grace"? Oh.
40
00:04:21,052 --> 00:04:22,678
Thank you.
41
00:04:24,347 --> 00:04:26,056
Good morning, Your Grace.
42
00:04:27,184 --> 00:04:28,851
Good morning, Your Grace.
43
00:04:41,990 --> 00:04:44,867
- All right. Sit down.
- Ah, good evening, Colonel. Glass of wine?
44
00:04:44,993 --> 00:04:47,578
Good evening, Your Grace.
Uh, thank you, no.
45
00:04:47,704 --> 00:04:51,749
I, uh, I called to inquire whether
you had any special wishes for breakfast.
46
00:04:51,875 --> 00:04:54,877
Just coffee
and a slice of toast, thank you.
47
00:04:55,003 --> 00:04:56,879
Oh, and perhaps a few grapes.
48
00:04:57,005 --> 00:04:58,881
I hate to disappoint
the newspaper-reading public
49
00:04:59,007 --> 00:05:01,926
but it'll be too early
for the conventional hearty breakfast.
50
00:05:02,052 --> 00:05:04,053
The appointment is at 8:00,
is it not?
51
00:05:04,095 --> 00:05:06,096
At 8:00, uh, yes.
52
00:05:06,223 --> 00:05:09,725
If I may venture to say so,
I am amazed at your calmness.
53
00:05:11,728 --> 00:05:14,355
Dr Johnson was, as always, right,
54
00:05:14,397 --> 00:05:16,398
when he observed,
"Depend upon it, sir.
55
00:05:16,441 --> 00:05:18,943
"When a man knows that he's going
to be hanged in a few hours,
56
00:05:19,069 --> 00:05:21,445
"it concentrates his mind wonderfully."
57
00:05:21,947 --> 00:05:25,574
Yes. Well, if there is nothing further
I can do for you...
58
00:05:25,700 --> 00:05:27,076
Nothing, thank you, Colonel.
59
00:05:27,118 --> 00:05:31,038
We shall have the opportunity of making
our adieus in the morning, I presume.
60
00:05:31,081 --> 00:05:33,082
I regret to say, yes.
61
00:05:34,751 --> 00:05:37,253
- Good night, Your Grace.
- Good night, Colonel.
62
00:05:46,304 --> 00:05:50,099
A brief history
of the events leading thereto
63
00:05:50,225 --> 00:05:52,601
written on the eve of his execution
64
00:05:52,727 --> 00:05:56,605
by Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini,
10th Duke of Chalfont
65
00:05:57,607 --> 00:06:00,150
who ventures to hope
that it may prove not uninteresting
66
00:06:00,277 --> 00:06:03,112
to those who remain to read it.
67
00:06:09,119 --> 00:06:13,289
My good man, it is not by my choice
that you keep me company.
68
00:06:13,331 --> 00:06:17,126
If you wish to sleep, pray do me
the courtesy of sleeping quietly.
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00:06:20,463 --> 00:06:23,674
With so little time
remaining to complete my story,
70
00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:26,427
it is difficult to choose
where to begin it.
71
00:06:26,469 --> 00:06:28,012
Perhaps I should begin
at the beginning.
72
00:06:29,306 --> 00:06:34,518
I was a healthy baby, born of an
English mother and Italian father,
73
00:06:36,021 --> 00:06:39,982
who succumbed to a heart attack
at the moment of first setting eyes on me.
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00:06:40,025 --> 00:06:44,194
In the circumstances, it will be understood
that I have but slight memory of him.
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00:06:44,321 --> 00:06:46,780
The little I know comes
from what Mama told me.
76
00:07:08,303 --> 00:07:10,638
Your father was a very handsome man.
77
00:08:04,234 --> 00:08:07,403
Mama was the daughter
of the seventh duke of Chalfont
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00:08:07,529 --> 00:08:09,405
of Chalfont Castle.
79
00:08:10,448 --> 00:08:12,741
She eloped with her handsome singer
80
00:08:12,867 --> 00:08:16,578
and exchanged the medieval splendours
of Chalfont Castle
81
00:08:16,705 --> 00:08:18,080
for the modern conveniences
82
00:08:18,123 --> 00:08:20,749
of No 73, Balaclava Avenue, SW.
83
00:08:29,759 --> 00:08:33,887
They were poor, but they had
five happy and harmonious years
84
00:08:33,930 --> 00:08:37,599
before my arrival sent Papa off
to join the heavenly choir.
85
00:08:43,481 --> 00:08:46,400
Reduced to even deeper poverty
by my father's death,
86
00:08:46,443 --> 00:08:48,318
Mama swallowed her pride
87
00:08:48,445 --> 00:08:52,072
and made an effort at reconciliation
with her family.
88
00:08:52,115 --> 00:08:54,783
They did not even reply to her letter.
89
00:08:55,952 --> 00:08:58,162
In order to keep us both alive,
she was reduced
90
00:08:58,288 --> 00:09:00,581
to the horrible expedient
of taking in a lodger.
91
00:09:02,709 --> 00:09:06,295
For him, she had to perform
the most menial tasks.
92
00:09:06,421 --> 00:09:10,758
She felt that her family had conspired
to cheat me of my birthright,
93
00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:12,968
and I passed
from infancy to childhood
94
00:09:13,094 --> 00:09:16,388
in an atmosphere
of family history and genealogies.
95
00:09:17,599 --> 00:09:19,308
The dukedom had been bestowed
96
00:09:19,434 --> 00:09:22,895
by Charles ll
on Colonel Henry D'Ascoyne
97
00:09:23,772 --> 00:09:27,066
for services rendered to His Majesty
during his exile.
98
00:09:28,151 --> 00:09:30,986
Later, for services rendered
to His Majesty
99
00:09:31,112 --> 00:09:34,073
after his restoration by the Duchess,
100
00:09:34,574 --> 00:09:36,492
the title was granted
the unique privilege
101
00:09:36,576 --> 00:09:39,078
of descending by the female
as well as the male line.
102
00:09:40,455 --> 00:09:41,497
Louis.
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00:09:41,623 --> 00:09:43,999
It was therefore theoretically possible
104
00:09:44,125 --> 00:09:47,169
that via Mama I might inherit the dukedom.
105
00:09:49,839 --> 00:09:51,840
Mama scraped and saved
106
00:09:51,925 --> 00:09:55,094
and sent me to the best school
she could afford.
107
00:09:55,178 --> 00:09:58,138
One little incident of my school days
occurs to me as amusing
108
00:09:58,181 --> 00:09:59,973
in relation to my present situation.
109
00:10:00,016 --> 00:10:01,683
Lionel Holland.
110
00:10:02,852 --> 00:10:04,645
What is the Sixth Commandment?
111
00:10:05,855 --> 00:10:07,856
Come, come now.
112
00:10:08,983 --> 00:10:10,109
Someone else then.
113
00:10:10,193 --> 00:10:12,361
I know, please, Miss Waterman.
114
00:10:12,487 --> 00:10:14,780
Louis Mazzini. Tell him.
115
00:10:16,616 --> 00:10:19,201
- Thou shalt not kill.
- Quite right, Louis.
116
00:10:19,285 --> 00:10:21,870
The Sixth Commandment is,
"Thou shalt not kill."
117
00:10:21,996 --> 00:10:23,664
No, in those days,
118
00:10:23,706 --> 00:10:26,834
I never had any trouble
with the Sixth Commandment.
119
00:10:26,876 --> 00:10:31,296
As to the Seventh, I was hardly of an age
to concern myself with it.
120
00:10:31,381 --> 00:10:34,508
Although I was old enough
to be in love.
121
00:10:34,551 --> 00:10:37,469
So Sibella enters my story.
122
00:10:37,554 --> 00:10:40,055
Sibella and her brother, Graham,
were my only close friends
123
00:10:40,181 --> 00:10:42,307
and we grew up together.
124
00:10:42,392 --> 00:10:46,895
In their case, Mama relaxed her objection
to my associating with the local children.
125
00:10:47,564 --> 00:10:51,567
At least their father, Dr Halworth,
was a professional man.
126
00:10:52,694 --> 00:10:56,697
Louis, we must think very carefully
about your future.
127
00:10:57,240 --> 00:10:59,074
Well, it should be quite easy
to get a job.
128
00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:01,910
Not a job, dear. A career.
129
00:11:03,872 --> 00:11:06,498
I had hoped for Cambridge for you.
130
00:11:06,583 --> 00:11:08,917
The D'Ascoynes always go to Trinity.
131
00:11:09,002 --> 00:11:12,087
And then, perhaps, the diplomatic.
132
00:11:12,213 --> 00:11:15,340
But I'm afraid it's no use
looking as high as that.
133
00:11:16,342 --> 00:11:18,760
However, when you've
passed your examination
134
00:11:18,845 --> 00:11:21,763
that should equip you for a start
in one of the professions.
135
00:11:21,848 --> 00:11:26,101
People of quite good family go into
the professions nowadays, I understand.
136
00:11:27,270 --> 00:11:29,938
Now, who do we know
who could help us?
137
00:11:30,940 --> 00:11:35,194
We don't really know anyone,
except the family, and they don't know us.
138
00:11:35,278 --> 00:11:37,946
The least we can do
is try once more.
139
00:11:40,450 --> 00:11:43,118
I shall write
to Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne.
140
00:11:43,244 --> 00:11:45,954
He can surely do something
in that bank of his.
141
00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:49,124
Bank, Mama? ls that a profession?
142
00:11:49,250 --> 00:11:51,960
This is a private bank, Louis, dear.
143
00:11:52,086 --> 00:11:54,546
They don't pass money over the counter.
144
00:11:54,631 --> 00:11:56,465
The letter was duly dispatched
145
00:11:56,549 --> 00:11:58,800
and this time we did get an answer.
146
00:11:58,927 --> 00:12:02,137
"Madam, I am instructed
by Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne
147
00:12:02,263 --> 00:12:05,474
"to inform you that he is not aware
of your son's existence
148
00:12:05,558 --> 00:12:08,644
"as a member
of the D'Ascoyne family."
149
00:12:08,770 --> 00:12:11,146
Signed by his secretary.
150
00:12:11,272 --> 00:12:14,816
It's very stupid of him, of them all,
not to admit your existence
151
00:12:14,943 --> 00:12:17,778
when one day you might be
duke of Chalfont.
152
00:12:17,820 --> 00:12:19,821
It's a very big "might," Mama.
153
00:12:19,906 --> 00:12:22,324
There must be at least 12 people
before me
154
00:12:22,450 --> 00:12:24,785
to say nothing of the ones
who haven't been born yet.
155
00:12:24,827 --> 00:12:27,412
Stranger things have happened.
156
00:12:27,497 --> 00:12:30,499
I don't wish to be unchristian,
but in view of their attitude,
157
00:12:30,625 --> 00:12:34,086
I could almost wish those 12 people
should all die tomorrow.
158
00:12:35,505 --> 00:12:37,339
All except one, Mama.
159
00:12:37,465 --> 00:12:40,968
Because you must be duchess
of Chalfont before I'm duke.
160
00:12:43,763 --> 00:12:47,849
It will have to be a job, not a career,
after all, Mama.
161
00:12:47,934 --> 00:12:50,269
I'm afraid so, Louis.
162
00:12:50,353 --> 00:12:52,771
A D'Ascoyne in trade.
163
00:12:52,855 --> 00:12:55,315
Did poor Mama's silly dreaming
164
00:12:55,358 --> 00:12:58,860
plant in my brain some seed
which was afterwards to grow
165
00:12:58,987 --> 00:13:02,447
into the most sensational
criminal endeavour of the century?
166
00:13:02,532 --> 00:13:04,866
If so, I was not conscious of it
at the time
167
00:13:04,993 --> 00:13:07,286
for there were things
of more immediate concern.
168
00:13:07,370 --> 00:13:09,955
Even potential dukes have to eat.
169
00:13:10,039 --> 00:13:13,458
Mr Perkins,
our lodger for nearly 15 years,
170
00:13:13,543 --> 00:13:15,168
did his best to be helpful.
171
00:13:15,211 --> 00:13:17,838
He was employed as shop walker
in a local drapery store
172
00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:19,840
and found employment for me there.
173
00:13:19,882 --> 00:13:22,134
The possible future duke of Chalfont
174
00:13:22,218 --> 00:13:26,471
became what was known
as a general assistant at the drapery.
175
00:13:26,556 --> 00:13:30,684
This humiliation continued
for two dispiriting years.
176
00:13:31,811 --> 00:13:34,813
And then one day, Mama,
who had broken her glasses
177
00:13:34,897 --> 00:13:37,232
and could not afford
to have them mended,
178
00:13:37,317 --> 00:13:40,235
was knocked down by a tram
near Clapham Junction
179
00:13:40,361 --> 00:13:42,237
and fatally injured.
180
00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:46,908
- Louis.
- Yes, Mama.
181
00:13:48,369 --> 00:13:51,496
I should like to be buried
at Chalfont,
182
00:13:52,206 --> 00:13:54,207
in the family vault.
183
00:13:55,918 --> 00:13:57,377
Yes, Mama.
184
00:14:06,596 --> 00:14:11,099
I wrote to the Duke
informing him of Mama's dying wish.
185
00:14:11,184 --> 00:14:14,269
His reply
was the curtest possible refusal.
186
00:14:14,395 --> 00:14:18,857
Standing by Mama's poor little grave
in that hideous suburban cemetery,
187
00:14:18,941 --> 00:14:23,403
I made an oath that I would revenge
the wrongs her family had done her.
188
00:14:24,781 --> 00:14:28,075
It was no more than
a piece of youthful bravado
189
00:14:28,117 --> 00:14:32,871
but it was one of those acorns
from which great oaks are destined to grow.
190
00:14:32,955 --> 00:14:35,582
Even then I went so far
as to examine the family tree
191
00:14:35,625 --> 00:14:38,418
and prune it
to just the living members.
192
00:14:38,461 --> 00:14:41,129
But what could I do to hurt them?
193
00:14:41,214 --> 00:14:43,507
What could I take from them,
194
00:14:43,591 --> 00:14:47,135
except, perhaps, their lives?
195
00:14:47,220 --> 00:14:49,930
I indulged for a moment
in a fantasy of all 12 of them
196
00:14:50,014 --> 00:14:52,766
being wiped out simultaneously
at a family reunion
197
00:14:52,850 --> 00:14:54,559
by my unseen hand.
198
00:14:54,644 --> 00:14:57,042
Of the penniless boy
from Clapham being
199
00:14:57,043 --> 00:14:59,439
miraculously transplanted
to his birthright.
200
00:14:59,524 --> 00:15:02,275
I even speculated
as to how I might contrive it.
201
00:15:03,861 --> 00:15:05,821
But there were
other more urgent problems.
202
00:15:05,905 --> 00:15:09,658
Mama's tiny income came from an annuity
and had died with her.
203
00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:15,497
The problem of how to live
on 25 shillings a week was solved for me
204
00:15:15,581 --> 00:15:18,750
by an invitation from Dr Halworth
to lodge with them.
205
00:15:18,835 --> 00:15:22,587
It was galling to accept the status
of a poor relation
206
00:15:22,672 --> 00:15:26,716
but the certainty of seeing Sibella every
day was too tempting to be refused.
207
00:15:27,552 --> 00:15:31,054
Louis, I'm so glad you accepted.
208
00:15:31,139 --> 00:15:33,098
It was my idea, you know.
209
00:15:34,183 --> 00:15:36,685
- I've brought you something.
- Oh, Louis, you shouldn't have.
210
00:15:36,769 --> 00:15:39,146
You can't possibly afford it.
211
00:15:41,774 --> 00:15:44,151
Oh, what a bother. There's Lionel.
212
00:15:44,569 --> 00:15:46,528
See you at supper.
213
00:15:57,039 --> 00:16:00,625
The next few years
brought many such heartbreaks,
214
00:16:00,710 --> 00:16:02,627
but they also brought promotion.
215
00:16:02,712 --> 00:16:05,422
Laces and ribbons
at 30 shillings a week,
216
00:16:05,506 --> 00:16:08,049
fabrics at 32 and six.
217
00:16:08,134 --> 00:16:11,052
Finally, ladies' underwear at 35.
218
00:16:22,231 --> 00:16:24,691
I decided that
if I was to be a draper,
219
00:16:24,775 --> 00:16:28,111
at least I would not be
a suburban draper.
220
00:16:28,196 --> 00:16:32,199
So I migrated to a large modern store which
had just been opened in the West End,
221
00:16:32,283 --> 00:16:35,410
at the gigantic salary of �2 a week.
222
00:16:37,371 --> 00:16:40,749
Every lunchtime I went to see
how my inheritance was proceeding.
223
00:16:40,833 --> 00:16:43,793
Sometimes the deaths column
brought good news.
224
00:16:52,595 --> 00:16:55,764
Sometimes,
the births column brought bad.
225
00:16:57,475 --> 00:17:01,102
The advent of twin sons to the Duke
was a terrible blow.
226
00:17:03,773 --> 00:17:06,066
Fortunately, an epidemic of diphtheria
227
00:17:06,150 --> 00:17:09,152
restored the status quo almost immediately
228
00:17:09,237 --> 00:17:12,531
and even brought me a bonus
in the shape of the Duchess.
229
00:17:13,741 --> 00:17:16,409
That summer, the Halworths gave a party.
230
00:17:24,210 --> 00:17:26,795
- Good evening, Sibella.
- Hello, Louis.
231
00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,715
- You do look nice.
- So do you.
232
00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:33,301
- Doesn't he, Lionel?
- Very.
233
00:17:42,228 --> 00:17:44,104
Emboldened by her kindness to me,
234
00:17:44,188 --> 00:17:47,190
I made a decision
I'd been toying with for some time.
235
00:17:48,651 --> 00:17:51,570
Well, that's the last of them,
thank heaven.
236
00:17:52,530 --> 00:17:54,948
- What an evening.
- I thought it was a very nice evening.
237
00:17:55,032 --> 00:17:57,075
It may have been for you. Oh!
238
00:17:57,159 --> 00:18:01,663
It's awful being a woman,
having to dance with a lot of dull men,
239
00:18:01,747 --> 00:18:04,749
laugh at their jokes
while they're treading on your feet.
240
00:18:04,834 --> 00:18:07,752
- I didn't tread on your feet.
- You're not dull.
241
00:18:07,837 --> 00:18:10,422
- And your jokes are funny.
- Thank you.
242
00:18:11,632 --> 00:18:13,883
- Sibella?
- Mmm-hmm?
243
00:18:13,968 --> 00:18:16,720
Sibella, will you marry me?
244
00:18:18,931 --> 00:18:21,641
Louis, of course not. Do get up.
245
00:18:21,726 --> 00:18:23,727
You may be half Italian,
but even so,
246
00:18:23,811 --> 00:18:26,354
you do look silly
playing the stage lover like that.
247
00:18:26,439 --> 00:18:28,898
- Oh, I look silly, do I?
- Yes. Very.
248
00:18:36,073 --> 00:18:38,033
Do I still look silly?
249
00:18:44,707 --> 00:18:46,791
Now, will you marry me?
250
00:18:47,627 --> 00:18:49,169
No.
251
00:18:49,837 --> 00:18:52,881
- Why not?
- Because I just said I'd marry Lionel.
252
00:18:55,259 --> 00:18:57,802
- You can't.
- Why not?
253
00:18:57,887 --> 00:18:59,721
Well, he's a clod.
He's not a gentleman.
254
00:19:00,389 --> 00:19:02,390
Listen to who's talking.
255
00:19:02,475 --> 00:19:05,727
Whoever heard of a gentleman
blacking the lodger's boots?
256
00:19:06,145 --> 00:19:09,022
That's a wicked thing to say.
Just because Mama was poor.
257
00:19:09,273 --> 00:19:11,316
Lionel will be very rich one day.
258
00:19:11,609 --> 00:19:15,362
- I might be a duke one day.
- Pigs might fly.
259
00:19:15,446 --> 00:19:18,823
No, I might. Really, I might.
You see, Mama was the daughter...
260
00:19:18,908 --> 00:19:20,700
Oh, yes. I know.
261
00:19:20,785 --> 00:19:22,410
Well, when you are a duke,
262
00:19:22,495 --> 00:19:25,288
you just come and show me your crown,
or whatever it's called
263
00:19:25,373 --> 00:19:27,666
and then I'll feel awfully silly,
won't I?
264
00:19:27,750 --> 00:19:28,792
Yes, you will.
265
00:19:28,876 --> 00:19:32,379
Anyhow, I'm going to marry Lionel
and now I'm going to bed.
266
00:19:36,300 --> 00:19:39,177
You will.
267
00:19:41,889 --> 00:19:43,473
If there was a precise moment
268
00:19:43,557 --> 00:19:46,643
at which my insubstantial dreaming
took on solid purpose
269
00:19:46,727 --> 00:19:48,603
that was it.
270
00:19:48,688 --> 00:19:51,606
The D'Ascoynes had not only
wronged my mother,
271
00:19:51,691 --> 00:19:55,193
they were the obstacle between me
and all that I wanted.
272
00:19:56,362 --> 00:20:00,073
The more I thought of them,
these people whom I had studied
273
00:20:00,157 --> 00:20:03,785
until I knew their names and histories
as well as I knew my own,
274
00:20:03,869 --> 00:20:06,996
the more they became monsters
of arrogance and cruelty
275
00:20:07,081 --> 00:20:11,167
whose only function in the world
was to deprive me of my birthright.
276
00:20:13,921 --> 00:20:17,298
I had seen Chalfont
only as Mama had painted it.
277
00:20:21,929 --> 00:20:24,764
To pass in through
that magnificent gateway,
278
00:20:24,849 --> 00:20:29,561
on Visitors Day at a cost of sixpence
was a humiliating experience,
279
00:20:29,645 --> 00:20:32,105
but I forced myself to undergo it.
280
00:20:32,189 --> 00:20:36,276
I wanted a closer view of the target
at which I had determined to aim.
281
00:20:39,905 --> 00:20:43,199
I little expected to catch
a glimpse of the bull's-eye.
282
00:20:47,580 --> 00:20:48,997
Excuse me, sir.
283
00:20:49,707 --> 00:20:52,876
There were then some eight people
between me and the dukedom
284
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:55,378
all seemingly equally out of reach.
285
00:20:55,463 --> 00:20:57,922
It is so difficult to make a neat job
of killing people
286
00:20:58,007 --> 00:21:00,842
with whom one is not
on friendly terms.
287
00:21:01,260 --> 00:21:04,387
I was almost resigned
to its being an impossibility
288
00:21:04,472 --> 00:21:08,266
when one afternoon, at a moment when
my thoughts were furthest from the subject
289
00:21:08,350 --> 00:21:10,393
fate took a hand.
290
00:21:10,478 --> 00:21:13,438
If you've nothing better,
those will have to do.
291
00:21:13,898 --> 00:21:16,316
These London shops
are so far behind Paris.
292
00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:18,693
Parcel them up quickly,
and we'll take them with us.
293
00:21:18,778 --> 00:21:21,613
- Charge them to my account.
- Yes, sir. What is the name?
294
00:21:22,406 --> 00:21:24,449
Mr Ascoyne D'Ascoyne.
295
00:21:26,202 --> 00:21:29,370
At last, I was face to face
with one of them.
296
00:21:29,455 --> 00:21:32,749
This was the son
of Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne, the banker,
297
00:21:32,833 --> 00:21:35,794
whose refusal to help me
towards a more dignified career
298
00:21:35,878 --> 00:21:38,588
had led to my present
ignominious occupation.
299
00:21:39,507 --> 00:21:41,299
What right had this arrogant puppy
300
00:21:41,383 --> 00:21:45,094
to be standing on the other side
of the counter ordering me about?
301
00:21:45,179 --> 00:21:48,306
In my excitement and anger,
I listened openly to their conversation.
302
00:21:48,390 --> 00:21:51,184
I've booked rooms
at Cruickshanks' at Maidenhead.
303
00:21:51,268 --> 00:21:53,061
We'll go down late
on Friday afternoon.
304
00:21:53,145 --> 00:21:54,813
Are you sure it's safe?
305
00:21:54,897 --> 00:21:58,274
It's the most discreet place.
In fact, anonymous.
306
00:21:59,527 --> 00:22:02,987
Hey, you. Get on with that parcel,
and never mind what we're talking about.
307
00:22:03,072 --> 00:22:05,448
Don't you dare touch me like that!
308
00:22:05,533 --> 00:22:08,409
I'm not interested
in your idiotic conversation.
309
00:22:08,494 --> 00:22:11,955
If you want to add impertinence
to your eavesdropping
310
00:22:12,706 --> 00:22:14,874
we'll soon see about that.
311
00:22:16,627 --> 00:22:20,004
The upshot was
that I was dismissed on the spot.
312
00:22:20,089 --> 00:22:22,632
I decided to repay him in kind
313
00:22:22,716 --> 00:22:26,636
by dismissing him with equal
suddenness from this world.
314
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:30,890
His conversation had told me where I could
probably find the opportunity to kill him.
315
00:22:30,975 --> 00:22:34,519
Dr Halworth's dispensary
had provided me with a means.
316
00:22:36,814 --> 00:22:39,691
With the week's wages
I had received in lieu of notice,
317
00:22:39,775 --> 00:22:43,152
I invested in suitable apparel
for a weekend at Maidenhead.
318
00:22:52,955 --> 00:22:55,623
It was possible
they might remember me
319
00:22:55,708 --> 00:22:57,333
but I thought it unlikely,
320
00:22:57,418 --> 00:23:00,670
shop assistants being commonly
regarded as an inferior race
321
00:23:00,754 --> 00:23:03,882
who never emerged
from the other side of the counter.
322
00:23:07,052 --> 00:23:09,971
I decided
to take the bull by the horns.
323
00:23:11,432 --> 00:23:14,100
Forgive me. I wonder if you could
oblige me with a match.
324
00:23:14,184 --> 00:23:16,019
- Certainly.
- Thank you.
325
00:23:16,979 --> 00:23:20,648
- Haven't we met before somewhere?
- I don't think so.
326
00:23:21,317 --> 00:23:24,360
Funny, 'cause I could have sworn
I knew your face.
327
00:23:24,445 --> 00:23:26,654
- Were you at Monte last year?
- The year before.
328
00:23:26,739 --> 00:23:29,449
Ah, that must be it.
Won't you join me?
329
00:23:29,533 --> 00:23:31,701
Thank you. Not this evening.
330
00:23:31,785 --> 00:23:33,703
We are rather tired.
331
00:23:40,044 --> 00:23:43,212
I deprecated their retiring so early,
332
00:23:43,297 --> 00:23:45,214
but it was hard to blame them,
333
00:23:45,299 --> 00:23:47,884
for weekends, like life, are short.
334
00:23:49,053 --> 00:23:51,971
The next morning,
I waited for them to come down
335
00:23:52,056 --> 00:23:54,015
and the next afternoon.
336
00:23:56,810 --> 00:23:59,270
They didn't appear the whole day.
337
00:24:04,652 --> 00:24:05,944
Nor the morning after.
338
00:24:22,336 --> 00:24:24,253
I no longer felt sentimental.
339
00:24:24,338 --> 00:24:26,673
The weekend was nearly over,
and I could hardly expect providence
340
00:24:26,757 --> 00:24:30,218
to offer me
so promising a chance again.
341
00:24:30,302 --> 00:24:32,261
I was in a state of desperation
342
00:24:32,346 --> 00:24:35,556
and I followed them,
hoping for I knew not what.
343
00:24:36,684 --> 00:24:40,728
I had the poison with me, but they
hadn't even taken a picnic basket.
344
00:24:40,813 --> 00:24:44,482
It was possible, however, that they might
stop somewhere for refreshment.
345
00:24:47,319 --> 00:24:50,279
They did stop shortly afterwards,
346
00:24:50,364 --> 00:24:52,323
but not for that.
347
00:24:53,534 --> 00:24:56,995
Judging by past experience,
they would be there for hours.
348
00:25:17,307 --> 00:25:19,142
The rest followed automatically.
349
00:25:19,226 --> 00:25:22,603
I had fortunately learned to swim
at the Clapham Municipal Baths
350
00:25:22,688 --> 00:25:25,648
though I never had occasion
to try it underwater.
351
00:25:26,817 --> 00:25:29,610
I had no wish to surface
under their noses,
352
00:25:29,695 --> 00:25:32,905
though I doubt if they would have
noticed me even if I had.
353
00:25:38,328 --> 00:25:40,288
It was beautifully timed.
354
00:26:14,823 --> 00:26:16,699
I was sorry about the girl,
355
00:26:16,825 --> 00:26:19,660
but found some relief in the reflection
that she had presumably,
356
00:26:19,745 --> 00:26:23,372
during the weekend, already undergone
a fate worse than death.
357
00:26:32,841 --> 00:26:36,719
I decided to defer consideration
of where and how I should next strike
358
00:26:36,845 --> 00:26:39,680
until my nerves
were thoroughly restored.
359
00:26:40,265 --> 00:26:42,350
It must be remembered
that I was very young
360
00:26:42,434 --> 00:26:45,770
and, furthermore,
I am not naturally callous.
361
00:26:47,856 --> 00:26:50,191
I suddenly conceived a brilliant idea.
362
00:26:51,902 --> 00:26:56,948
I would write a carefully phrased letter
of condolence to old Ascoyne D'Ascoyne.
363
00:26:57,032 --> 00:27:01,202
It would be an agreeable feeling of revenge
for his cruelty to Mama.
364
00:27:01,286 --> 00:27:04,288
And, further, it had not failed to occur
to me that there was, at the moment,
365
00:27:04,373 --> 00:27:06,457
a vacancy in the banking house.
366
00:27:07,543 --> 00:27:10,086
Ascoyne D'Ascoyne duly rose to the bait.
367
00:27:12,089 --> 00:27:14,549
Please be seated, Mr Mazzini.
368
00:27:18,887 --> 00:27:20,888
How do you do?
369
00:27:26,562 --> 00:27:28,479
My late son.
370
00:27:32,901 --> 00:27:34,235
A great loss.
371
00:27:34,736 --> 00:27:36,445
He was young and foolish
372
00:27:36,572 --> 00:27:40,116
but I believe had he been spared
until his maturity...
373
00:27:40,242 --> 00:27:43,911
It was my consciousness of that which led
me to presume to tender you my sympathy.
374
00:27:43,954 --> 00:27:46,080
I am glad that you did so.
375
00:27:46,123 --> 00:27:50,418
A loss so tragic serves to put lesser
matters in their proper perspective.
376
00:27:51,461 --> 00:27:53,963
If I remember rightly, Mr Mazzini,
377
00:27:54,089 --> 00:27:58,426
some years ago
I received a communication
378
00:27:58,468 --> 00:28:00,428
from your mother.
379
00:28:00,929 --> 00:28:02,305
My late mother.
380
00:28:10,022 --> 00:28:12,607
Hello, Louis.
You look very pleased with yourself.
381
00:28:12,691 --> 00:28:14,859
- So do you.
- I have news.
382
00:28:14,943 --> 00:28:16,444
- So have I.
- What is it?
383
00:28:16,486 --> 00:28:17,528
No, yours first.
384
00:28:17,613 --> 00:28:21,616
Lionel and I have fixed a date
for our wedding, in two months' time.
385
00:28:21,700 --> 00:28:23,284
My congratulations.
386
00:28:23,368 --> 00:28:26,537
No, I should congratulate him.
I compliment you.
387
00:28:26,622 --> 00:28:29,457
- Now yours.
- Nothing as exciting as yours.
388
00:28:30,459 --> 00:28:33,044
I went today to see Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne,
my cousin, you know.
389
00:28:33,712 --> 00:28:35,796
He has a private banking house
in the city.
390
00:28:35,839 --> 00:28:38,466
He offered me employment at once
at �5 a week
391
00:28:38,550 --> 00:28:40,885
with excellent prospects
for promotion.
392
00:28:42,137 --> 00:28:45,890
Louis, I'm so glad for you.
393
00:28:47,517 --> 00:28:51,145
- Louis, do you remember?
- What?
394
00:28:51,647 --> 00:28:54,065
Once, in this room,
395
00:28:55,317 --> 00:28:57,401
after my party...
396
00:28:57,986 --> 00:29:00,404
- I kissed you.
- Yes.
397
00:29:00,489 --> 00:29:02,365
And you were horrible to me.
398
00:29:02,491 --> 00:29:03,741
Yes.
399
00:29:04,660 --> 00:29:08,246
I made fun about you
being related to the D'Ascoynes.
400
00:29:09,498 --> 00:29:11,415
I'm sorry.
401
00:29:11,500 --> 00:29:13,084
You'll take it more seriously now?
402
00:29:13,168 --> 00:29:14,669
Yes.
403
00:29:15,712 --> 00:29:17,755
Louis, kiss me,
404
00:29:19,007 --> 00:29:21,342
to show you've forgiven me.
405
00:29:24,846 --> 00:29:28,432
No, it would be wrong.
You're pledged to Lionel.
406
00:29:28,517 --> 00:29:31,352
I behaved like a cad that night.
407
00:29:31,395 --> 00:29:34,355
I like you when you behave
like a cad.
408
00:29:41,238 --> 00:29:44,448
You're a person who must dance
through life, Sibella,
409
00:29:44,533 --> 00:29:47,243
and I hope Lionel won't tread
on your feet too often.
410
00:29:51,873 --> 00:29:54,208
My new employment
was humble enough
411
00:29:54,251 --> 00:29:57,878
but I had to test the rungs of the ladder
before I could climb it.
412
00:30:04,303 --> 00:30:07,263
That's very nice.
413
00:30:07,723 --> 00:30:11,767
The next candidate for removal
seemed to be young Henry D'Ascoyne,
414
00:30:11,893 --> 00:30:14,478
24 years old, recently married,
415
00:30:14,563 --> 00:30:16,731
as yet, without issue.
416
00:30:16,815 --> 00:30:19,775
I had quite an accumulation by now
of D'Ascoyne data
417
00:30:19,901 --> 00:30:22,611
culled from newspapers and periodicals,
418
00:30:22,738 --> 00:30:25,614
and I looked through it
for a possible approach to Henry.
419
00:30:25,741 --> 00:30:27,575
I found one.
420
00:30:27,659 --> 00:30:30,745
I bought the necessary equipment,
second hand,
421
00:30:30,787 --> 00:30:33,664
and bicycled down
the following weekend.
422
00:30:33,749 --> 00:30:37,084
I had studied a couple of photographic
manuals during the week,
423
00:30:37,127 --> 00:30:39,837
and found that, in practice,
the mysteries of the camera
424
00:30:39,921 --> 00:30:42,631
demand a little more
than ordinary intelligence,
425
00:30:42,758 --> 00:30:46,510
plus the ability to judge
the subject upside-down.
426
00:30:46,595 --> 00:30:49,930
It was thus, indeed,
that I first saw Henry D'Ascoyne.
427
00:31:05,030 --> 00:31:08,532
My method of approach proved
an instantaneous success.
428
00:31:08,617 --> 00:31:12,036
Excuse me.
Isn't that a Thornton Pickard?
429
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:14,330
Yes. Are you a photographer?
430
00:31:14,456 --> 00:31:16,707
Dabble in it. Got a Sanger Shepherd.
431
00:31:16,792 --> 00:31:18,626
- A Sanger Shepherd?
- Nice little camera.
432
00:31:18,710 --> 00:31:21,379
Focal plane shutter,
rapid rectilinear and all that.
433
00:31:21,463 --> 00:31:24,215
Look here. Why not come up
to my house and I'll show it to you?
434
00:31:24,299 --> 00:31:26,467
Well, I'd be most interested.
435
00:31:27,844 --> 00:31:31,138
- My name's D'Ascoyne, by the way.
- Mine is Mazzini.
436
00:31:31,890 --> 00:31:34,350
He seemed a very pleasant fellow
437
00:31:34,476 --> 00:31:37,019
and I regretted that our acquaintanceship
must be so short.
438
00:31:38,188 --> 00:31:40,856
Had one of the potting sheds
fixed up as a darkroom.
439
00:31:40,982 --> 00:31:43,150
Couldn't have suited better
if it had been built for it.
440
00:31:43,193 --> 00:31:44,985
Had the equipment
sent down from town.
441
00:31:45,487 --> 00:31:48,823
And I must say the results
have been absolutely top-hole.
442
00:31:48,865 --> 00:31:52,952
I'll show you some quarter-plates
I've taken about the village.
443
00:31:54,830 --> 00:31:58,165
There we are.
Absolutely lightproof, except for this.
444
00:31:58,291 --> 00:32:03,003
Everything to hand, developing dishes here,
toning bath here, whole-plate enlarger.
445
00:32:03,130 --> 00:32:05,506
- Perfect.
- Not too bad, is it?
446
00:32:06,550 --> 00:32:09,051
Talking of the village, by the by,
I don't know if you're thinking
447
00:32:09,177 --> 00:32:11,971
of sending any of your efforts here
to some periodical,
448
00:32:12,013 --> 00:32:14,014
but there's just one thing.
449
00:32:15,475 --> 00:32:17,977
I'm sure you're a good fellow,
or I wouldn't like to ask.
450
00:32:18,019 --> 00:32:20,020
Ask what?
451
00:32:20,063 --> 00:32:23,691
I'd be most grateful if you'd keep back
that last plate you exposed.
452
00:32:24,359 --> 00:32:27,027
- The inn? But it was delightful.
- Yes.
453
00:32:27,654 --> 00:32:30,698
The fact is, my wife has views
about such places,
454
00:32:30,740 --> 00:32:32,867
so I never go in them,
you understand?
455
00:32:32,909 --> 00:32:34,994
Naturally, I wouldn't dream
of embarrassing you.
456
00:32:35,036 --> 00:32:38,581
I knew you were a good fellow.
Suppose we drink on it?
457
00:32:40,876 --> 00:32:44,044
Unless you have views yourself,
of course.
458
00:32:44,087 --> 00:32:45,713
- None.
- Splendid.
459
00:32:46,214 --> 00:32:49,049
What shall it be?
Sherry? Whisky?
460
00:32:52,220 --> 00:32:54,346
I think a small developer.
461
00:32:55,682 --> 00:32:59,059
The mental picture of his wife
that I had formed from Henry's words
462
00:32:59,102 --> 00:33:02,897
left me unprepared for the charm
of the woman I was to meet.
463
00:33:02,939 --> 00:33:06,400
She was as tall and slender as a lily
and as beautiful.
464
00:33:06,443 --> 00:33:09,278
My dear, this is Mr Mazzini.
He has a Thornton Pickard.
465
00:33:09,404 --> 00:33:11,572
Mr Mazzini, my wife.
466
00:33:12,282 --> 00:33:14,742
I'm no photographer myself,
Mr Mazzini,
467
00:33:14,868 --> 00:33:18,037
but I share my husband's pleasure
in welcoming a fellow enthusiast.
468
00:33:18,079 --> 00:33:20,956
- You'll take some sherry?
- Well, thank you, I...
469
00:33:26,588 --> 00:33:30,132
My husband and I never touch alcohol,
but we see no reason, on that account
470
00:33:30,258 --> 00:33:32,426
to enforce our views on our guests.
471
00:33:32,552 --> 00:33:33,886
Glass of sherry, Harwood.
472
00:33:33,929 --> 00:33:36,555
I have some printing frames
out in the sun.
473
00:33:36,598 --> 00:33:38,891
If you don't mind,
I'll just run out and see to them.
474
00:33:40,602 --> 00:33:43,103
Have you been in the neighbourhood long,
Mr Mazzini?
475
00:33:43,230 --> 00:33:44,939
A few hours only.
476
00:33:45,065 --> 00:33:47,107
I was cycling through the village
477
00:33:47,150 --> 00:33:49,777
and felt compelled to stop
and make a study or two of the inn.
478
00:33:49,903 --> 00:33:52,780
- It looked so charming.
- It does look charming.
479
00:33:53,573 --> 00:33:55,074
But I'm afraid it's, by no means,
480
00:33:55,116 --> 00:33:57,660
an influence for good
in the lives of our people here.
481
00:33:57,786 --> 00:33:59,453
The landlord
is a former coachman of ours.
482
00:33:59,579 --> 00:34:02,748
I have spoken to him several times about
the amount of drinking that goes on there
483
00:34:02,791 --> 00:34:04,833
but he continues to allow it.
484
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:07,127
It is, after all, I suppose,
his livelihood.
485
00:34:07,170 --> 00:34:09,296
I do not consider he has the right
to make a livelihood
486
00:34:09,422 --> 00:34:11,757
by exploiting the weaknesses
of his fellow men.
487
00:34:13,009 --> 00:34:15,302
Put as you put it,
it does sound deplorable.
488
00:34:15,428 --> 00:34:18,097
It is deplorable.
Will you excuse me a moment?
489
00:34:19,015 --> 00:34:20,140
Harwood.
490
00:34:21,101 --> 00:34:23,519
I could well understand
Henry's visits to the village inn
491
00:34:23,645 --> 00:34:26,146
and his stock of refreshments
in the darkroom.
492
00:34:26,189 --> 00:34:29,441
Mrs D'Ascoyne was beautiful,
but what a prig she was.
493
00:34:30,151 --> 00:34:33,362
I wondered how
to ingratiate myself with her,
494
00:34:33,488 --> 00:34:36,824
and decided to attack on her own ground
and with her own weapons.
495
00:34:36,866 --> 00:34:40,327
I'm afraid we can offer you
only a simple luncheon, Mr Mazzini.
496
00:34:40,370 --> 00:34:43,706
You are most kind,
but I feel I should not intrude.
497
00:34:43,832 --> 00:34:46,875
- It is no intrusion.
- I'm afraid it is.
498
00:34:48,336 --> 00:34:51,171
- May I explain?
- Please do.
499
00:34:54,801 --> 00:34:57,177
It was only when your husband
told me his name
500
00:34:57,304 --> 00:35:02,349
that I realised that I'd come by chance
into the most embarrassing situation.
501
00:35:02,475 --> 00:35:05,686
My mother was a member
of the D'Ascoyne family.
502
00:35:05,812 --> 00:35:08,689
She married,
as they thought, beneath her.
503
00:35:08,732 --> 00:35:11,317
And from that day,
they refused to recognise her
504
00:35:11,359 --> 00:35:13,527
or my existence.
505
00:35:14,195 --> 00:35:18,907
I feel that, although in the circumstances
you might hesitate to say so to my face,
506
00:35:19,034 --> 00:35:22,870
you and your husband would prefer
not to receive me at your table.
507
00:35:22,996 --> 00:35:26,540
Perhaps you would be good enough
to explain matters to your husband for me.
508
00:35:26,583 --> 00:35:29,376
I shall, naturally,
leave the neighbourhood at once.
509
00:35:29,419 --> 00:35:31,879
Mr Mazzini, please sit down.
510
00:35:33,048 --> 00:35:34,173
Oh.
511
00:35:36,426 --> 00:35:39,219
You have exhibited
the most delicate feelings.
512
00:35:39,763 --> 00:35:42,681
I know nothing of the history
to which you refer,
513
00:35:42,724 --> 00:35:45,559
but I have often felt that the attitude
of my husband's family
514
00:35:45,602 --> 00:35:47,686
has failed to move with the times,
515
00:35:47,729 --> 00:35:50,189
that they think too much
of the rights of nobility
516
00:35:50,231 --> 00:35:52,524
and too little of its duties.
517
00:35:52,567 --> 00:35:57,071
The very honesty of your behaviour
would appear to me to prove them wrong.
518
00:35:57,113 --> 00:36:00,282
Was Lord Tennyson far from the mark
when he wrote,
519
00:36:00,408 --> 00:36:02,743
"Kind hearts are more than coronets
520
00:36:02,786 --> 00:36:05,412
"and simple faith than Norman blood"?
521
00:36:05,914 --> 00:36:07,456
I hope you will stay to luncheon.
522
00:36:08,249 --> 00:36:12,419
Oh, in that case,
I shall be delighted and honoured.
523
00:36:12,629 --> 00:36:15,756
My impersonation
of a man of sterling character
524
00:36:15,882 --> 00:36:17,591
was such a resounding success
525
00:36:17,717 --> 00:36:22,096
that Mrs D'Ascoyne invited me to spend
the following Saturday-to-Monday with them.
526
00:36:24,099 --> 00:36:27,935
When I returned to the somewhat
contrasting atmosphere of Clapham,
527
00:36:27,977 --> 00:36:31,605
I found the house in a whirl with
preparation for Sibella's wedding to Lionel
528
00:36:31,731 --> 00:36:34,066
which was to take place next day.
529
00:36:34,109 --> 00:36:37,152
Before going to bed that evening,
I wandered into the old nursery
530
00:36:37,278 --> 00:36:39,238
to fetch a book I'd left there.
531
00:36:48,415 --> 00:36:50,165
Penny for them.
532
00:36:50,291 --> 00:36:52,459
Oh, hello, Louis.
533
00:36:55,505 --> 00:36:58,298
You're not looking as radiantly happy
as young females in your situation
534
00:36:58,425 --> 00:36:59,466
are supposed to look.
535
00:36:59,592 --> 00:37:02,970
I was just thinking of all the fun
we've had in this room.
536
00:37:03,096 --> 00:37:06,014
- You and I and Graham.
- And Lionel.
537
00:37:06,808 --> 00:37:08,976
Yes, and Lionel.
538
00:37:11,646 --> 00:37:15,482
Oh, Louis,
I don't want to marry Lionel!
539
00:37:15,525 --> 00:37:17,860
- Why not?
- He's so dull!
540
00:37:19,446 --> 00:37:22,448
I must admit he exhibits the most
extraordinary capacity for middle age
541
00:37:22,490 --> 00:37:26,034
that I've ever encountered
in a young man of 24.
542
00:37:26,161 --> 00:37:29,788
However, it's a bit late in the day
to think of that, isn't it?
543
00:37:29,831 --> 00:37:33,167
I know. That only makes it worse.
544
00:37:33,209 --> 00:37:36,170
- I always told you you should marry me.
- I know.
545
00:37:37,547 --> 00:37:40,007
That makes it worse too.
546
00:37:54,522 --> 00:37:57,691
You look more lovely today
than I've ever seen you.
547
00:38:01,154 --> 00:38:04,364
You're a lucky man, Lionel.
Take my word for it.
548
00:38:09,245 --> 00:38:12,206
I could not help feeling
that even Sibella's capacity for lying
549
00:38:12,332 --> 00:38:14,875
was going to be taxed to the utmost.
550
00:38:15,001 --> 00:38:17,711
Time had brought me revenge on Lionel.
551
00:38:18,379 --> 00:38:20,339
And as the Italian proverb says,
552
00:38:20,381 --> 00:38:24,551
"Revenge is a dish which people of taste
prefer to eat cold."
553
00:38:27,722 --> 00:38:30,390
The following Saturday I left London
in the middle of the night
554
00:38:30,517 --> 00:38:32,559
and reached Henry's house just before dawn.
555
00:38:37,106 --> 00:38:39,525
It took a mere three minutes
to substitute petrol
556
00:38:39,567 --> 00:38:42,361
for the paraffin in the darkroom lamp.
557
00:38:42,737 --> 00:38:45,447
And I then repaired to a meadow
and took a few hours' sleep
558
00:38:45,573 --> 00:38:48,367
while awaiting the hour at which
I could reasonably arrive at the house.
559
00:38:50,703 --> 00:38:53,372
The day dragged by
in an agony of suspense for me.
560
00:38:53,790 --> 00:38:56,750
Henry took photograph after photograph,
561
00:38:56,876 --> 00:39:00,796
but seemed to have no urge whatever to
follow it up with a visit to the darkroom.
562
00:39:04,592 --> 00:39:05,801
Bravo, Edith!
563
00:39:06,219 --> 00:39:10,138
I began to fear
that he had suddenly taken the pledge.
564
00:39:11,140 --> 00:39:14,768
I think I'll just go and develop these
before tea. Care to come?
565
00:39:14,894 --> 00:39:17,604
I would, indeed, but I have
a slight headache. The sun, I think.
566
00:39:17,730 --> 00:39:20,148
And I'm afraid the chemicals
wouldn't improve it.
567
00:39:20,275 --> 00:39:22,734
Mr Mazzini and I will have tea
under the tulip tree.
568
00:39:22,777 --> 00:39:24,945
I've always found that
most beneficial for a headache.
569
00:39:25,446 --> 00:39:27,990
I'm afraid Henry
will think me a poor enthusiast.
570
00:39:28,116 --> 00:39:31,451
I sometimes think
that he is too great a one.
571
00:39:31,494 --> 00:39:33,412
In a way, I am to blame for it.
572
00:39:33,830 --> 00:39:36,331
Before we were married,
he had few interests.
573
00:39:36,457 --> 00:39:38,417
He used to spend the greater part
of each day at his club.
574
00:39:40,128 --> 00:39:41,461
I felt that such a life was unhealthy
575
00:39:41,504 --> 00:39:44,298
and persuaded him to come
and live here in the country.
576
00:39:45,466 --> 00:39:47,134
I hoped
that perhaps he would interest himself
577
00:39:47,176 --> 00:39:50,137
in the welfare of our tenantry, as I do.
578
00:39:50,430 --> 00:39:52,472
But he became interested in photography
on our honeymoon
579
00:39:53,099 --> 00:39:57,269
and since then it has become
the major preoccupation of his life.
580
00:39:58,271 --> 00:40:00,522
- Mr Mazzini...
- Yes?
581
00:40:00,648 --> 00:40:03,191
I hope you will forgive my speaking to you
on a personal matter,
582
00:40:03,860 --> 00:40:06,445
but it worries me that Henry
should spend so much time on his hobby
583
00:40:06,487 --> 00:40:08,655
that he has little left
for any more useful activity.
584
00:40:09,490 --> 00:40:11,617
Am I right to let him go on like this?
585
00:40:11,659 --> 00:40:14,494
I could hardly point out
that Henry now had no time left
586
00:40:14,537 --> 00:40:16,330
for any kind of activity,
587
00:40:16,372 --> 00:40:18,999
so I continued to discuss his future.
588
00:40:19,125 --> 00:40:21,168
He has never shown any wish
for a career in politics?
589
00:40:22,003 --> 00:40:24,630
- None.
- Nor any other ambitions?
590
00:40:24,672 --> 00:40:28,175
One only. To win a prize
at the Salon Photography in Brussels.
591
00:40:29,552 --> 00:40:31,053
What is it?
592
00:40:31,179 --> 00:40:35,015
Oh, they're just burning some leaves
at the bottom of the garden.
593
00:40:35,141 --> 00:40:37,893
But they can't be at this time of year.
594
00:40:40,021 --> 00:40:42,189
- Henry!
- No. You stay here.
595
00:40:42,857 --> 00:40:44,566
Needless to say, I was too late.
596
00:40:46,361 --> 00:40:49,529
The funeral service was held
in the village church at Chalfont,
597
00:40:49,656 --> 00:40:52,491
prior to interment in the family vault.
598
00:40:53,868 --> 00:40:56,411
Mrs D'Ascoyne, who had discerned in me
599
00:40:56,537 --> 00:40:59,748
a man of delicate sensibility
and high purpose
600
00:40:59,874 --> 00:41:02,709
asked me to accompany her
on the cross-country journey.
601
00:41:03,544 --> 00:41:05,545
"To everything there is a season
602
00:41:05,588 --> 00:41:09,549
"and a time to every purpose
under the heaven.
603
00:41:10,426 --> 00:41:14,054
"A time to be born, and a time to die."
604
00:41:14,430 --> 00:41:16,848
The occasion was interesting,
in that it provided me
605
00:41:16,891 --> 00:41:20,060
with my first sight
of the D'Ascoynes en masse.
606
00:41:20,895 --> 00:41:23,438
Interesting and somewhat depressing
607
00:41:23,564 --> 00:41:26,733
for it emphasised
how far I had yet to travel.
608
00:41:27,193 --> 00:41:29,027
There was the Duke.
609
00:41:32,740 --> 00:41:35,701
There was my employer,
Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne.
610
00:41:37,704 --> 00:41:40,580
There was Admiral Lord Horatio D'Ascoyne.
611
00:41:43,084 --> 00:41:46,253
There was General Lord Rufus D'Ascoyne.
612
00:41:49,257 --> 00:41:52,134
There was Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne.
613
00:41:56,222 --> 00:41:59,766
And in the pulpit,
talking interminable nonsense
614
00:41:59,892 --> 00:42:01,977
the Reverend Lord Henry D'Ascoyne.
615
00:42:02,103 --> 00:42:03,895
The life cut short
616
00:42:04,647 --> 00:42:09,443
was one rich in achievement and promise
617
00:42:09,902 --> 00:42:12,320
of service to humanity.
618
00:42:12,447 --> 00:42:14,906
The D'Ascoynes
certainly appeared to have accorded
619
00:42:14,949 --> 00:42:17,117
with the tradition of the landed gentry
620
00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:20,454
and sent the fool of the family
into the church.
621
00:42:21,956 --> 00:42:24,458
Well, goodbye, my dear.
622
00:42:25,334 --> 00:42:27,627
- Goodbye.
- No fretting now.
623
00:42:27,670 --> 00:42:30,797
After all, one thing to be said,
we all have to come to it.
624
00:42:31,799 --> 00:42:33,968
Great thing, you know,
family vault like ours.
625
00:42:33,969 --> 00:42:36,136
Constant reminder
of one's heritage.
626
00:42:36,179 --> 00:42:38,346
Now, take this new cremation nonsense.
627
00:42:38,473 --> 00:42:41,767
Who wants to see his nearest and dearest
put in an incinerator?
628
00:42:41,809 --> 00:42:44,811
I think, sir, Mrs D'Ascoyne should leave.
The wind is turning cold.
629
00:42:44,937 --> 00:42:47,272
As Mrs D'Ascoyne thinks best.
630
00:42:48,858 --> 00:42:51,526
Glad we had Cousin Henry
to take the service.
631
00:42:51,652 --> 00:42:55,155
Boring old ass,
but it keeps the thing in the family.
632
00:42:55,656 --> 00:42:57,657
People getting strange ideas these days.
633
00:42:57,784 --> 00:42:59,826
Had a fellow write to me not so long ago,
634
00:42:59,952 --> 00:43:03,121
wanted to bury his mother here
from Tooting or somewhere.
635
00:43:03,164 --> 00:43:05,999
Start letting strangers in,
the place will be full up.
636
00:43:06,125 --> 00:43:07,876
No room for us, eh?
637
00:43:08,836 --> 00:43:11,505
I privately promised him
that I would make it my business
638
00:43:11,547 --> 00:43:13,882
to see there was room for him.
639
00:43:18,971 --> 00:43:21,973
Uncle Ethelred
is not the most tactful of men.
640
00:43:22,016 --> 00:43:24,226
I could gladly have struck him.
641
00:43:24,352 --> 00:43:27,145
Thank you for intervening when you did.
642
00:43:29,690 --> 00:43:31,858
The house will be so empty
643
00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:35,028
and yet he will be in it everywhere.
644
00:43:36,322 --> 00:43:39,366
I find the thought of life
there hard to face.
645
00:43:39,408 --> 00:43:41,701
Must you stay there? A new environment...
646
00:43:42,370 --> 00:43:43,912
I must,
647
00:43:44,038 --> 00:43:45,872
for one reason if no other.
648
00:43:45,998 --> 00:43:49,709
They would say I was running away,
that there was truth in all these rumours.
649
00:43:49,836 --> 00:43:52,546
- Rumours?
- In the village.
650
00:43:53,339 --> 00:43:55,173
There's been gossip.
651
00:43:55,716 --> 00:43:58,718
They say that Henry drank in secret.
652
00:44:00,388 --> 00:44:02,347
They even say that
that was the cause of the accident.
653
00:44:03,224 --> 00:44:06,768
I'm sure that Henry would never have
professed one thing and practised another.
654
00:44:08,396 --> 00:44:10,063
I, too, am sure.
655
00:44:11,858 --> 00:44:13,859
Otherwise, I think I could not survive.
656
00:44:14,402 --> 00:44:17,696
We have a long way to go.
Try to sleep a little.
657
00:44:18,906 --> 00:44:20,365
Sleep does not come easily.
658
00:44:20,908 --> 00:44:22,284
Please try.
659
00:44:23,536 --> 00:44:24,870
Allow me.
660
00:44:28,749 --> 00:44:30,542
I was conscious that a new obsession
661
00:44:30,585 --> 00:44:34,754
was about to join the one that I should
wear the coronet of the duke of Chalfont,
662
00:44:35,423 --> 00:44:38,925
that Edith D'Ascoyne should wear that
of the duchess beside me.
663
00:44:39,886 --> 00:44:42,971
Her dignity of bearing
at the worst moments of her grief
664
00:44:43,097 --> 00:44:45,265
had impressed me with the feeling
that here was a woman
665
00:44:45,308 --> 00:44:47,809
whose quality matched her beauty.
666
00:44:48,436 --> 00:44:50,645
I resolved to embark upon her courtship
667
00:44:50,771 --> 00:44:54,441
as soon as a decent period of mourning
should have elapsed.
668
00:44:54,775 --> 00:44:59,112
Sibella? Yes, Sibella was pretty enough
in her suburban way.
669
00:44:59,780 --> 00:45:01,740
And, indeed, there was no reason
why we shouldn't continue
670
00:45:01,782 --> 00:45:03,825
to meet on friendly terms.
671
00:45:03,951 --> 00:45:07,329
But her face would have looked
rather out of place under a coronet.
672
00:45:10,291 --> 00:45:13,293
That, sir, is a list of bills
due for redemption this week.
673
00:45:13,419 --> 00:45:15,754
I've marked in red
those asking for renewal.
674
00:45:15,796 --> 00:45:19,925
Aitcheson, yes.
Pole and Carter, I suppose so.
675
00:45:19,967 --> 00:45:22,260
Knollis Limited, oh, no.
676
00:45:22,303 --> 00:45:24,304
Redbank and Holland...
677
00:45:24,347 --> 00:45:26,473
You have a friend there, have you not?
678
00:45:26,599 --> 00:45:29,184
An acquaintance. I know Lionel Holland.
679
00:45:29,310 --> 00:45:31,645
Would you say that he's sound?
680
00:45:32,146 --> 00:45:33,521
I wouldn't say not, sir.
681
00:45:33,648 --> 00:45:35,273
Hmm. Thank you.
682
00:45:40,821 --> 00:45:43,198
- Mazzini.
- Yes, sir?
683
00:45:43,991 --> 00:45:47,118
I've watched your progress here
with great care
684
00:45:47,161 --> 00:45:50,497
and have been gratified to note
that it has fully justified my judgement
685
00:45:50,539 --> 00:45:52,832
in inviting you into the firm.
686
00:45:52,959 --> 00:45:57,379
In view of that, and in order that
you may be able to adopt a style of living
687
00:45:57,505 --> 00:46:00,340
befitting a member of the D'Ascoyne family,
688
00:46:00,466 --> 00:46:03,802
I have decided
to appoint you my private secretary
689
00:46:03,844 --> 00:46:06,846
at a salary of �500 per annum.
690
00:46:07,682 --> 00:46:10,976
- Sir, I cannot begin to...
- Oh, please do not try.
691
00:46:11,018 --> 00:46:14,688
I had intended
that my son should occupy the position.
692
00:46:15,523 --> 00:46:19,484
I can only say that I will try
to make my occupancy of it
693
00:46:19,527 --> 00:46:21,403
worthy of his memory.
694
00:46:25,324 --> 00:46:27,033
I left the Halworths' house
695
00:46:27,159 --> 00:46:29,911
and took a bachelor apartment
in St James's.
696
00:46:30,037 --> 00:46:32,706
Clapham no longer held Sibella's presence
to compensate me
697
00:46:32,748 --> 00:46:35,417
for the tedious journey
between the suburbs and the city.
698
00:46:37,712 --> 00:46:42,090
Anyhow, it would be vastly more convenient
for her to visit me here.
699
00:46:55,062 --> 00:46:58,606
Now, let me have a look
at the beautiful Mrs Holland.
700
00:46:58,733 --> 00:47:01,901
- No, I think I prefer Miss Halworth.
- So do I.
701
00:47:03,070 --> 00:47:06,406
Louis,
it's very wrong of me to visit you here.
702
00:47:06,532 --> 00:47:09,617
- Why?
- A married woman calling on a bachelor?
703
00:47:10,953 --> 00:47:12,787
A dangerous bachelor
704
00:47:13,748 --> 00:47:15,415
in his apartment.
705
00:47:15,541 --> 00:47:17,042
I? Dangerous?
706
00:47:19,754 --> 00:47:22,464
These things only become wrong
when people know about them.
707
00:47:22,590 --> 00:47:25,467
This is a very discreet apartment.
That's why I chose it.
708
00:47:25,593 --> 00:47:28,803
So that young women
could call on you in safety?
709
00:47:30,097 --> 00:47:32,599
So that one young woman could.
710
00:47:33,642 --> 00:47:35,935
How did you know she'd want to?
711
00:47:36,062 --> 00:47:37,312
I hoped.
712
00:47:41,233 --> 00:47:44,235
- How did you enjoy your honeymoon?
- Not at all.
713
00:47:45,946 --> 00:47:47,322
Not at all?
714
00:47:48,324 --> 00:47:49,783
Not at all.
715
00:47:52,078 --> 00:47:54,329
- And how was Italy?
- Oh, impossible!
716
00:47:54,830 --> 00:47:58,083
Every time I wanted to go shopping,
Lionel dragged me off to a church
717
00:47:58,125 --> 00:47:59,918
or picture gallery.
718
00:47:59,960 --> 00:48:03,463
- Said he wanted to improve his mind.
- He has room to do so.
719
00:48:04,131 --> 00:48:07,759
I should reprove you
for saying unkind things about him
720
00:48:07,802 --> 00:48:09,302
but I can't.
721
00:48:10,930 --> 00:48:15,433
Louis, I think I've married
the most boring man in London.
722
00:48:15,476 --> 00:48:17,602
- In England.
- In Europe!
723
00:48:21,315 --> 00:48:24,943
Oh, the Italian men are so handsome,
724
00:48:25,486 --> 00:48:28,988
but I could never get away
from Lionel for a moment.
725
00:48:30,282 --> 00:48:32,992
But I was forgetting, you're Italian.
726
00:48:33,452 --> 00:48:34,619
Half.
727
00:48:40,292 --> 00:48:41,626
Louis...
728
00:48:42,878 --> 00:48:45,672
I can speak frankly to you?
729
00:48:47,466 --> 00:48:49,676
Well, if not to me, to whom?
730
00:48:50,511 --> 00:48:52,137
I shall go mad.
731
00:48:52,638 --> 00:48:55,682
Already when he touches me,
I want to scream.
732
00:49:10,531 --> 00:49:12,198
What am I doing?
733
00:49:14,034 --> 00:49:15,702
You know very well.
734
00:49:15,744 --> 00:49:17,871
You're playing with fire.
735
00:49:18,372 --> 00:49:20,248
At least it warms me.
736
00:49:21,750 --> 00:49:23,168
I must go.
737
00:49:25,379 --> 00:49:27,547
Lionel's dining at home tonight.
738
00:49:27,590 --> 00:49:29,424
Where is Lionel dining tomorrow night?
739
00:49:29,550 --> 00:49:32,051
With some business acquaintances.
740
00:49:32,761 --> 00:49:35,430
And where are you dining tomorrow night?
741
00:49:35,556 --> 00:49:37,056
Here?
742
00:49:37,183 --> 00:49:38,349
Here.
743
00:49:45,191 --> 00:49:47,192
Poor little imprisoned bird.
744
00:49:47,234 --> 00:49:51,237
Well, she was welcome to come
and flutter her wings with me.
745
00:49:51,280 --> 00:49:53,907
I could think of many more
disagreeable ways of killing time
746
00:49:53,949 --> 00:49:55,867
pending the arrival of the moment
747
00:49:55,910 --> 00:49:57,952
when the conventional decencies
would permit me
748
00:49:58,078 --> 00:50:00,455
to make my declaration to Edith.
749
00:50:01,457 --> 00:50:05,084
As to the other undertaking,
I had not forgotten or forgiven
750
00:50:05,127 --> 00:50:07,754
the boredom of the sermon
at young Henry's funeral
751
00:50:08,130 --> 00:50:11,216
and I decided to promote
the Reverend Lord Henry D'Ascoyne
752
00:50:11,258 --> 00:50:12,800
to next place on the list.
753
00:50:13,385 --> 00:50:17,555
I therefore assumed the garb and character
of a colonial bishop
754
00:50:17,598 --> 00:50:22,769
spending his vacation making a collection
of brass rubbings from country churches.
755
00:50:24,939 --> 00:50:26,898
Good evening, my lord.
756
00:50:28,108 --> 00:50:29,609
It was, for a moment,
a shock to be addressed
757
00:50:29,652 --> 00:50:32,779
by my ecclesiastical title,
but I recovered quickly.
758
00:50:32,821 --> 00:50:37,325
Good evening. I was just taking a rubbing
of this most interesting brass.
759
00:50:37,618 --> 00:50:40,662
An ancestress of my dear late wife.
760
00:50:41,455 --> 00:50:43,957
Allow me to introduce myself.
761
00:50:43,999 --> 00:50:47,961
Henry D'Ascoyne, rector of this parish.
762
00:50:48,003 --> 00:50:51,422
Septimus Wilkinson, bishop of Matabeleland.
763
00:50:52,841 --> 00:50:55,135
I was spending my
vacation taking a cycling
764
00:50:55,136 --> 00:50:57,428
tour around your beautiful
country churches.
765
00:50:57,471 --> 00:51:01,766
- Ah! Have you noticed our clerestory?
- Cle...
766
00:51:04,144 --> 00:51:05,979
Ah, exquisite!
767
00:51:06,105 --> 00:51:08,648
- The corbels are very fine.
- Hmm.
768
00:51:09,483 --> 00:51:13,611
Perhaps Your Lordship would permit me
to show you one or two other things
769
00:51:13,654 --> 00:51:15,321
in which we take a pride.
770
00:51:15,364 --> 00:51:17,490
I should be most interested.
771
00:51:17,616 --> 00:51:20,285
Our most notable features, of course,
772
00:51:20,661 --> 00:51:23,329
are the D'Ascoyne memorials.
773
00:51:23,998 --> 00:51:26,499
Every member of the family
774
00:51:26,959 --> 00:51:30,670
to a cadet branch
of which I have the honour to belong
775
00:51:30,796 --> 00:51:34,507
is buried here in the family vault.
776
00:51:36,051 --> 00:51:40,888
Here you will see
the first duke and his duchess.
777
00:51:41,640 --> 00:51:45,810
The dead watching, as it were,
over the living.
778
00:51:47,229 --> 00:51:50,481
The church is exceptionally endowed also
779
00:51:50,524 --> 00:51:53,901
with items of architectural interest.
780
00:51:55,321 --> 00:51:58,531
You will note that our chantry
781
00:51:58,657 --> 00:52:02,577
displays the crocketed and finialed ogee
782
00:52:02,703 --> 00:52:07,040
which marks it as very early Perpendicular.
783
00:52:08,876 --> 00:52:11,711
The bosses to the pendant are typical.
784
00:52:13,589 --> 00:52:15,548
And I always say
785
00:52:16,425 --> 00:52:19,260
that my west window
786
00:52:19,386 --> 00:52:22,764
has all the exuberance of Chaucer
787
00:52:23,724 --> 00:52:29,228
without, happily, any of
the concomitant crudities of his period.
788
00:52:29,271 --> 00:52:30,563
Hmm.
789
00:52:31,065 --> 00:52:33,232
Now we approach the font.
790
00:52:34,234 --> 00:52:37,362
At last he did as I had hoped
and invited me to dinner.
791
00:52:37,404 --> 00:52:40,948
The Reverend Lord Henry was not
one of those newfangled parsons
792
00:52:41,075 --> 00:52:44,744
who carry the principles of their vocation
uncomfortably into private life.
793
00:52:44,787 --> 00:52:47,372
However, he exhibited a polite interest
794
00:52:47,414 --> 00:52:49,916
in the progress of the Christian faith
in Matabeleland
795
00:52:50,042 --> 00:52:51,918
which I was at some difficulty to satisfy.
796
00:52:52,044 --> 00:52:54,712
The SPCK have provided us
797
00:52:54,755 --> 00:52:57,465
with a large number of copies
of the Good Book
798
00:52:57,591 --> 00:52:59,801
translated into Matabele.
799
00:52:59,927 --> 00:53:03,262
But as none of the natives can read
even their own language...
800
00:53:03,305 --> 00:53:07,266
- You speak Matabele yourself?
- Not as a native.
801
00:53:08,268 --> 00:53:10,645
It would be most interesting
802
00:53:10,771 --> 00:53:13,773
to hear a sample of the language.
803
00:53:14,608 --> 00:53:16,651
I'm afraid my Matabele is a little rusty.
804
00:53:16,902 --> 00:53:19,278
Oh, come, my lord.
805
00:53:21,240 --> 00:53:26,119
Daniel cast into the lions' den,
for example.
806
00:53:37,965 --> 00:53:40,800
It is a colloquial rendering, of course.
807
00:53:41,301 --> 00:53:43,010
Most interesting.
808
00:53:45,180 --> 00:53:47,265
My lord, the port is with you.
809
00:53:47,599 --> 00:53:48,641
Oh.
810
00:53:51,979 --> 00:53:54,981
- How do you find the wine?
- Admirable.
811
00:53:55,649 --> 00:53:58,192
- Courban '69.
- Oh.
812
00:53:58,318 --> 00:54:00,653
No finer year, in my view.
813
00:54:03,449 --> 00:54:07,118
My doctor, though,
is of a different opinion.
814
00:54:07,661 --> 00:54:09,662
And what does he favour?
815
00:54:11,331 --> 00:54:12,874
Abstinence.
816
00:54:15,711 --> 00:54:18,004
Would you care for a cigar?
817
00:54:19,214 --> 00:54:20,673
Thank you.
818
00:54:48,202 --> 00:54:49,368
Yes.
819
00:54:51,413 --> 00:54:56,375
He's continually warning me
about the state of my arteries.
820
00:55:01,882 --> 00:55:03,591
But I say to him,
821
00:55:04,551 --> 00:55:07,720
"What possible harm can there be
822
00:55:07,763 --> 00:55:10,181
"in one glass of an evening
823
00:55:12,434 --> 00:55:13,935
"or even two?"
824
00:55:14,394 --> 00:55:16,103
What harm, indeed.
825
00:55:18,065 --> 00:55:21,400
- You do not condemn me then?
- Not in the least.
826
00:55:22,903 --> 00:55:24,529
If I may say so,
827
00:55:25,364 --> 00:55:28,908
without disrespect to my superiors,
828
00:55:29,910 --> 00:55:33,287
your visit has brought me something
829
00:55:33,914 --> 00:55:38,751
which I could not expect
from any churchman in this country.
830
00:56:12,244 --> 00:56:14,787
I surmised, correctly, as it proved
831
00:56:14,913 --> 00:56:18,791
that Lord Henry's doctor would assume
that he had succumbed to a surfeit of port
832
00:56:18,834 --> 00:56:21,294
and would politely ascribe death
to a heart attack.
833
00:56:22,129 --> 00:56:25,172
On my return to London,
I decided to proceed methodically
834
00:56:25,299 --> 00:56:28,426
with the elimination of
the remaining minor obstacles.
835
00:56:28,468 --> 00:56:33,306
Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne was a pioneer
in the campaign for women's suffrage.
836
00:56:39,646 --> 00:56:42,148
With the inconvenient consequence
that her public appearances
837
00:56:42,274 --> 00:56:46,152
were invariably made under the watchful
eyes of the metropolitan police.
838
00:56:46,278 --> 00:56:48,529
When she was not making
public appearances,
839
00:56:48,655 --> 00:56:51,824
she was in prison
and still more inaccessible.
840
00:56:51,950 --> 00:56:55,328
In fact, before I could learn
of a favourable opportunity,
841
00:56:55,370 --> 00:56:57,872
I had to join the movement myself.
842
00:56:58,373 --> 00:57:00,625
Secret plans had been made for Lady Agatha
843
00:57:00,667 --> 00:57:02,627
to celebrate
her latest release from Holloway
844
00:57:02,669 --> 00:57:05,713
by a shower of leaflets over Whitehall
and the West End.
845
00:57:39,665 --> 00:57:41,332
I shot an arrow in the air,
846
00:57:42,876 --> 00:57:45,586
she fell to Earth in Berkeley Square.
847
00:57:46,755 --> 00:57:50,508
Admiral Lord Horatio D'Ascoyne
presented a more difficult problem.
848
00:57:51,760 --> 00:57:54,220
He scarcely ever set foot ashore
849
00:57:55,430 --> 00:57:59,934
and I was beginning to feel that this task
was beyond even my ingenuity.
850
00:58:02,562 --> 00:58:05,523
When he was conveniently
involved in a naval disaster
851
00:58:05,565 --> 00:58:08,693
which arose from a combination
of natural obstinacy
852
00:58:08,735 --> 00:58:10,861
and a certain confusion of mind.
853
00:58:10,904 --> 00:58:12,738
Unfortunate in one of his rank.
854
00:58:14,032 --> 00:58:15,741
Bring her to port.
855
00:58:18,412 --> 00:58:21,414
- Surely you mean starboard, sir.
- Port!
856
00:58:30,549 --> 00:58:33,259
Both ships sank almost immediately.
857
00:58:33,301 --> 00:58:36,804
Though, fortunately,
all hands were saved, save one.
858
00:58:38,765 --> 00:58:41,767
Admiral Lord Horatio, obstinate to the last
859
00:58:41,810 --> 00:58:44,562
insisted on going down with his ship.
860
00:58:48,275 --> 00:58:51,610
General Lord Rufus D'Ascoyne,
on the other hand,
861
00:58:51,653 --> 00:58:53,988
who never tired of demonstrating
how he had fought
862
00:58:54,114 --> 00:58:57,074
the most calamitous campaign
of the South African War
863
00:58:57,117 --> 00:58:58,576
was a fairly easy proposition.
864
00:58:58,618 --> 00:59:04,832
At that moment, the concealed enemy
emerged from behind the kopje.
865
00:59:05,459 --> 00:59:10,296
I held our guns' fire until
we could see the whites of their eyes.
866
00:59:10,422 --> 00:59:13,799
Then I gave the order. "Fire!"
867
00:59:15,177 --> 00:59:16,594
Boom, boom, boom.
868
00:59:17,846 --> 00:59:20,806
It seemed appropriate that
he who had lived amidst the cannon's roar
869
00:59:20,932 --> 00:59:22,933
should die explosively.
870
00:59:23,310 --> 00:59:28,314
I therefore concealed in a pot of caviar
a simple but powerful homemade bomb
871
00:59:29,024 --> 00:59:32,777
and through the post,
I sent the caviar to the general.
872
00:59:33,028 --> 00:59:35,696
I pretended
to be deceived by the feint
873
00:59:35,822 --> 00:59:38,032
and sent our horse to meet it.
874
00:59:38,158 --> 00:59:43,120
At that moment, the concealed enemy
emerged from behind the kopje.
875
00:59:43,705 --> 00:59:45,831
I held our guns' fire
876
00:59:45,957 --> 00:59:48,876
till we could see the whites of their eyes.
877
00:59:54,382 --> 00:59:57,718
Used to get a lot of this stuff
in the Crimea.
878
00:59:57,844 --> 01:00:00,679
One thing the Russkies do really well.
879
01:00:04,726 --> 01:00:06,894
Not an atom of him was left.
880
01:00:10,232 --> 01:00:15,319
One could almost believe there was a curse
on our unfortunate family, Mazzini.
881
01:00:15,362 --> 01:00:16,695
Indeed, sir, one could.
882
01:00:16,822 --> 01:00:20,199
I don't know if you realise
how close this series of tragedies
883
01:00:20,242 --> 01:00:22,409
has brought you to the succession.
884
01:00:22,536 --> 01:00:24,245
I had not actually given the matter
any thought, sir.
885
01:00:24,371 --> 01:00:26,205
Then it's time that you did.
886
01:00:26,248 --> 01:00:30,084
Do you not realise that you are
heir presumptive to the dukedom?
887
01:00:30,210 --> 01:00:32,711
That is to say, in the event of
the present duke dying without issue,
888
01:00:32,838 --> 01:00:35,881
I alone intervene
between you and the title.
889
01:00:36,341 --> 01:00:38,175
And I am an old man.
890
01:00:38,927 --> 01:00:41,887
I've never really recovered
from the first of these calamities.
891
01:00:42,681 --> 01:00:44,723
You mean I might become Duke of Chalfont?
892
01:00:44,850 --> 01:00:46,767
I mean that you almost certainly will.
893
01:00:48,228 --> 01:00:50,396
In view of that,
I feel it would be more fitting
894
01:00:50,522 --> 01:00:53,691
that you should cease to be
an employee here.
895
01:00:53,733 --> 01:00:56,944
- Oh.
- And become instead my partner.
896
01:00:58,363 --> 01:01:00,447
I am most deeply grateful and honoured.
897
01:01:00,574 --> 01:01:04,910
If you'll come round here,
I will make everything very clear to you.
898
01:01:14,129 --> 01:01:19,133
Uh, had she lived, your mother, of course,
would have succeeded before you.
899
01:01:19,676 --> 01:01:21,594
One of my first tasks as partner
900
01:01:21,636 --> 01:01:23,929
was to interview Lionel, who came cap...
901
01:01:24,472 --> 01:01:26,765
Or rather, silk hat in hand.
902
01:01:27,934 --> 01:01:31,353
To save time, I presume you have called
to ask for renewal of your bill?
903
01:01:32,439 --> 01:01:34,773
The fact is, old boy, we sold short
904
01:01:34,858 --> 01:01:37,943
and the market hasn't
dropped as we expected.
905
01:01:38,028 --> 01:01:41,697
I feel entitled to point out
that we here regard our function
906
01:01:41,781 --> 01:01:44,783
as the encouragement
of constructive investment
907
01:01:44,868 --> 01:01:47,786
and not the financing
of mere gambling transactions.
908
01:01:47,871 --> 01:01:49,121
Now...
909
01:01:50,165 --> 01:01:52,458
it would have delighted me
to refuse him.
910
01:01:52,542 --> 01:01:55,211
However, a bankrupt Lionel
could hardly have continued
911
01:01:55,295 --> 01:01:57,838
to support Sibella in her extravagances
912
01:01:57,964 --> 01:02:00,299
and I had no wish to do so myself.
913
01:02:00,342 --> 01:02:04,637
Very well. We will renew
at three and a half percent.
914
01:02:05,055 --> 01:02:07,723
I judged that the time was now ripe
to make a move
915
01:02:07,807 --> 01:02:09,475
in the matter of Edith D'Ascoyne.
916
01:02:09,517 --> 01:02:11,644
It's becoming cold. Shall we go in?
917
01:02:12,646 --> 01:02:15,147
I know why you shivered just now.
918
01:02:15,232 --> 01:02:17,483
It was not because you were cold.
919
01:02:17,525 --> 01:02:18,651
No.
920
01:02:20,028 --> 01:02:22,071
I couldn't help remembering.
921
01:02:22,155 --> 01:02:25,032
I know. But do you try to forget?
922
01:02:26,076 --> 01:02:29,245
- I may sound harsh, but believe me...
- Please.
923
01:02:29,871 --> 01:02:31,247
Not there.
924
01:02:33,583 --> 01:02:36,085
Because it was Henry's chair.
925
01:02:36,169 --> 01:02:38,754
It hasn't been used since that day.
926
01:02:39,256 --> 01:02:41,090
Nothing of his.
927
01:02:41,174 --> 01:02:45,344
Everything is just as he left it,
his writing desk, his clothes.
928
01:02:46,054 --> 01:02:49,014
I cannot bear that it should be otherwise.
929
01:02:50,850 --> 01:02:53,435
You want this house to be a shrine.
930
01:02:53,520 --> 01:02:57,564
You're wrong.
Shrines are not meant to house the living.
931
01:02:58,775 --> 01:03:03,279
I have always respected you,
your principles, your courage,
932
01:03:03,363 --> 01:03:05,781
above any woman I've ever met.
933
01:03:05,865 --> 01:03:09,201
It is your duty to yourself and to others,
934
01:03:09,244 --> 01:03:11,078
to Henry even,
935
01:03:11,204 --> 01:03:14,290
to live again in the present,
in the future.
936
01:03:15,375 --> 01:03:16,792
What future is there for me?
937
01:03:23,800 --> 01:03:27,094
I am now going to say
something presumptuous.
938
01:03:27,220 --> 01:03:29,888
You must order me
from your house if you wish.
939
01:03:29,973 --> 01:03:31,557
It is this...
940
01:03:32,267 --> 01:03:36,562
If you should ever feel that
the constant support of a devoted admirer
941
01:03:36,604 --> 01:03:38,981
would be of assistance to you,
942
01:03:39,065 --> 01:03:42,234
I should be most honoured
if you would permit me
943
01:03:42,277 --> 01:03:44,778
to offer you my hand in marriage.
944
01:03:46,614 --> 01:03:48,073
Mr Mazzini...
945
01:03:55,290 --> 01:03:56,957
This is a shock.
946
01:03:58,960 --> 01:04:00,669
I'm most touched.
947
01:04:01,629 --> 01:04:03,922
Most grateful,
948
01:04:04,007 --> 01:04:07,926
but I could not consider
even the possibility of remarrying.
949
01:04:08,970 --> 01:04:12,306
I have spoken too boldly and too soon.
950
01:04:14,017 --> 01:04:17,978
Please regard what I have said merely
as something to draw upon
951
01:04:18,104 --> 01:04:19,772
should you ever feel so inclined.
952
01:04:20,482 --> 01:04:23,108
Sibella was waiting for me
when I got back.
953
01:04:23,151 --> 01:04:26,111
I was pleased to see her,
for while I never admired Edith
954
01:04:26,196 --> 01:04:28,280
as much as when I was with Sibella,
955
01:04:28,323 --> 01:04:31,283
I never longed for Sibella
as much as when I was with Edith.
956
01:04:33,661 --> 01:04:36,455
I'm afraid I'm late. Have you been bored?
957
01:04:36,539 --> 01:04:37,706
No.
958
01:04:38,208 --> 01:04:41,126
I've been looking into the fire
and thinking.
959
01:04:41,169 --> 01:04:43,212
- What about?
- Oh.
960
01:04:43,296 --> 01:04:46,673
How we used to roast chestnuts
round the other fire
961
01:04:46,800 --> 01:04:49,301
and what a lot has happened since.
962
01:04:49,386 --> 01:04:50,803
Such as?
963
01:04:50,845 --> 01:04:54,973
How you told me not to marry Lionel
because you might be a duke one day
964
01:04:55,016 --> 01:04:57,142
and how I laughed at you.
965
01:04:57,852 --> 01:04:59,978
And how I married Lionel
966
01:05:00,480 --> 01:05:03,148
and now you very nearly are a duke.
967
01:05:04,567 --> 01:05:06,402
We're much better off as we are, you and I.
968
01:05:06,486 --> 01:05:11,156
It's all very well for you to say that.
You're not married to Lionel.
969
01:05:11,199 --> 01:05:13,909
We see each other when we want to.
970
01:05:13,993 --> 01:05:15,994
We're not obliged to see each other
when we don't want to.
971
01:05:16,037 --> 01:05:19,206
We don't see each other
as often as I'd like to.
972
01:05:19,332 --> 01:05:22,167
- You've been away the whole weekend.
- I had to go.
973
01:05:22,210 --> 01:05:24,586
- Where?
- To see Mrs D'Ascoyne,
974
01:05:24,671 --> 01:05:27,423
the widow of that cousin of mine
who was killed.
975
01:05:27,507 --> 01:05:30,342
All your cousins seem to get killed.
976
01:05:30,385 --> 01:05:34,555
I really wouldn't be in the least surprised
if you'd murdered them all.
977
01:05:34,681 --> 01:05:36,890
- Oh.
- How clumsy of me.
978
01:05:49,028 --> 01:05:52,448
- Whatever made you say that?
- Just silliness.
979
01:05:53,283 --> 01:05:56,618
Well, if you promise not to tell anyone,
I'll let you in to my guilty secret.
980
01:05:56,703 --> 01:05:58,036
I did murder them all.
981
01:05:59,539 --> 01:06:02,082
I've suspected it for a long time.
982
01:06:03,209 --> 01:06:05,377
- What's she like?
- Who?
983
01:06:05,420 --> 01:06:09,590
- Mrs D'Ascoyne.
- Oh, she's tall, slender...
984
01:06:10,133 --> 01:06:11,467
Beautiful?
985
01:06:11,551 --> 01:06:13,469
Yes, I suppose some people
would call her beautiful.
986
01:06:13,553 --> 01:06:15,053
Would you?
987
01:06:15,096 --> 01:06:18,432
I suppose so.
I never really thought about that.
988
01:06:18,558 --> 01:06:21,643
What would you say
if she asked you about me?
989
01:06:30,320 --> 01:06:34,114
I'd say that you were
a perfect combination of imperfections.
990
01:06:34,240 --> 01:06:37,826
I'd say that your nose
was just a little too short,
991
01:06:37,911 --> 01:06:40,412
your mouth just a little too wide,
992
01:06:41,080 --> 01:06:43,582
but that yours was a face
that a man could see in his dreams
993
01:06:43,666 --> 01:06:45,792
for the whole of his life.
994
01:06:46,461 --> 01:06:49,296
I'd say that you were vain, selfish,
995
01:06:50,173 --> 01:06:52,758
cruel, deceitful.
996
01:06:54,594 --> 01:06:56,970
I'd say that you were adorable.
997
01:06:57,764 --> 01:07:00,599
I'd say that you were Sibella.
998
01:07:01,935 --> 01:07:04,019
What a pretty speech.
999
01:07:04,103 --> 01:07:05,479
I mean it.
1000
01:07:06,606 --> 01:07:08,857
Come and say it to me again.
1001
01:07:13,988 --> 01:07:16,615
I'd say your nose
was just a little too short,
1002
01:07:16,699 --> 01:07:21,161
and your mouth, yes,
your mouth just a little too wide.
1003
01:07:29,379 --> 01:07:31,797
Shortly afterwards,
my employer had a stroke.
1004
01:07:32,298 --> 01:07:34,007
There was little that could be done
1005
01:07:34,133 --> 01:07:37,302
and the doctor gave him a month,
at the most, to live.
1006
01:07:37,345 --> 01:07:39,972
I was glad, after all his kindness to me
1007
01:07:40,056 --> 01:07:42,516
that I should not have to kill the old man.
1008
01:07:42,642 --> 01:07:45,978
Soon the only obstacle
between me and my inheritance
1009
01:07:46,020 --> 01:07:47,813
would be the Duke himself.
1010
01:07:48,189 --> 01:07:50,482
I could lay no plan for disposing of him
1011
01:07:50,567 --> 01:07:54,486
as the life he led within those great
stone walls was a closed book to me.
1012
01:07:54,529 --> 01:07:57,739
I was gloomily examining the problem
for the hundredth time
1013
01:07:57,824 --> 01:08:01,368
as I awaited one day the expected arrival
of Sibella at my apartments.
1014
01:08:08,835 --> 01:08:12,004
- Good afternoon, Mr Mazzini.
- Mrs D'Ascoyne.
1015
01:08:12,505 --> 01:08:13,922
I was passing through St James's
1016
01:08:14,007 --> 01:08:17,676
and thought I would take the opportunity
to call on you.
1017
01:08:21,014 --> 01:08:22,848
Was that wise? Discreet, I mean?
1018
01:08:23,266 --> 01:08:26,685
There are some conventions which must be
governed by individual circumstance.
1019
01:08:26,728 --> 01:08:29,730
Surely it is safe for a woman
to visit a man of your reputation.
1020
01:08:29,856 --> 01:08:31,690
It is of your reputation that I'm thinking.
1021
01:08:31,774 --> 01:08:35,277
Without being inhospitable, I would be
happier if your visit were not a long one.
1022
01:08:35,361 --> 01:08:38,238
I appreciate the scrupulousness
of your motives.
1023
01:08:38,364 --> 01:08:41,033
I have, anyhow,
only one important matter to speak of.
1024
01:08:41,075 --> 01:08:42,242
That is?
1025
01:08:42,368 --> 01:08:46,038
I have thought a great deal about
what you said at our last meeting
1026
01:08:46,122 --> 01:08:49,750
and I have tried to think
what Henry's wishes would be.
1027
01:08:50,043 --> 01:08:52,377
I remember he said to me once,
1028
01:08:53,087 --> 01:08:56,131
"You have too much good in you, Edith,
for one man.
1029
01:08:56,215 --> 01:08:58,216
"I sometimes wish
that others could have a share of it."
1030
01:09:01,429 --> 01:09:03,639
I have reconsidered the offer
you made to me.
1031
01:09:03,723 --> 01:09:06,391
Thank you again for it,
and accept it gladly.
1032
01:09:07,560 --> 01:09:09,394
You rob me of words.
1033
01:09:10,063 --> 01:09:13,649
I think, however, we should make
no announcement for three months, at least.
1034
01:09:14,108 --> 01:09:15,734
As you think best.
1035
01:09:15,818 --> 01:09:17,736
In these new circumstances
1036
01:09:17,779 --> 01:09:20,572
I think it more than ever desirable
that your unconventional,
1037
01:09:20,657 --> 01:09:23,241
though in its purpose delightful visit
should be cut short.
1038
01:09:23,743 --> 01:09:28,622
If your attention as a husband is equal
of your consideration as a friend,
1039
01:09:28,748 --> 01:09:31,750
I shall have made
a most fortunate decision.
1040
01:09:38,925 --> 01:09:41,176
Do you not think, though,
that perhaps Uncle Ethelred,
1041
01:09:41,260 --> 01:09:44,429
as head of the family,
should be told at once?
1042
01:09:44,931 --> 01:09:47,808
Perhaps so. Yes, I'll write to him.
1043
01:09:47,934 --> 01:09:49,935
Goodbye, Louis.
1044
01:09:50,019 --> 01:09:51,937
Goodbye, Edith.
1045
01:09:53,606 --> 01:09:56,858
You leave behind you
the happiest man in London.
1046
01:10:04,951 --> 01:10:06,326
This was not a piece of news
1047
01:10:06,452 --> 01:10:09,830
which I was looking forward
to breaking to Sibella.
1048
01:10:09,956 --> 01:10:11,790
She had no rights in the matter,
1049
01:10:11,833 --> 01:10:15,460
but women have a disconcerting ability
to make scenes out of nothing
1050
01:10:15,503 --> 01:10:19,464
and to prove themselves injured
when they themselves are at fault.
1051
01:10:21,175 --> 01:10:25,303
Anyhow, I had three months' grace
before I need face that storm.
1052
01:10:36,315 --> 01:10:39,234
Have you taken to using attar of roses?
1053
01:10:39,318 --> 01:10:42,362
- No. Why?
- Thought I could smell it.
1054
01:10:43,573 --> 01:10:47,075
I met such a beautiful woman
on the stairs just now.
1055
01:10:47,994 --> 01:10:49,494
I expect that would be Mrs D'Ascoyne.
1056
01:10:49,579 --> 01:10:51,705
- What was she doing here?
- She called in to see me.
1057
01:10:51,831 --> 01:10:54,708
- What about?
- Business. Family business.
1058
01:10:54,834 --> 01:10:57,335
Let me get you a glass of sherry.
1059
01:11:01,007 --> 01:11:04,009
A day or so later,
I received a letter from Lionel.
1060
01:11:04,051 --> 01:11:08,180
He requested an interview with me
at his house on a matter of some delicacy.
1061
01:11:08,264 --> 01:11:11,391
I was somewhat perturbed,
for nine times out of 10
1062
01:11:11,517 --> 01:11:14,144
what is referred to
as a matter of some delicacy
1063
01:11:14,228 --> 01:11:17,481
is, in point of fact,
one of extreme indelicacy.
1064
01:11:17,774 --> 01:11:21,443
Two days later,
I made the tedious journey to Bayswater.
1065
01:11:22,236 --> 01:11:25,447
It was typical of Lionel that he should
live on the wrong side of the park.
1066
01:11:25,531 --> 01:11:27,824
Hello, old boy. Have a drink.
1067
01:11:28,701 --> 01:11:31,495
No, thank you. Never during the day.
1068
01:11:31,579 --> 01:11:34,831
You don't mind if I do? Keep out the cold.
1069
01:11:35,374 --> 01:11:37,709
I was about to remark
on the warmth of the day.
1070
01:11:37,794 --> 01:11:40,420
- Just a joke, old boy.
- Ah, yes.
1071
01:11:41,005 --> 01:11:44,758
- Sit down, old boy.
- No, thank you. I would rather stand.
1072
01:11:47,136 --> 01:11:50,764
A warm day, isn't it?
For the time of the year, I mean.
1073
01:11:50,848 --> 01:11:54,434
Distinctly. It's also a very busy day.
1074
01:11:54,519 --> 01:11:56,812
May we proceed to the matter
about which you wished to see me?
1075
01:11:56,896 --> 01:12:00,357
Right. A matter of some delicacy,
actually, old boy.
1076
01:12:02,151 --> 01:12:05,403
But I said to myself,
"Louis is a sport and a man of the world.
1077
01:12:05,947 --> 01:12:08,657
- "Always been a sport."
- Thank you.
1078
01:12:08,741 --> 01:12:11,243
Always admired the
sporting way in which you
1079
01:12:11,244 --> 01:12:13,745
took to Sibella marrying
me and not you.
1080
01:12:13,830 --> 01:12:15,872
Some fellows would have
taken it very differently.
1081
01:12:16,749 --> 01:12:18,875
But "May the best man win," you said.
1082
01:12:19,377 --> 01:12:21,837
And when I won,
you behaved like a gentleman.
1083
01:12:21,921 --> 01:12:26,341
So I thought as you being keen on Sibella
at one time
1084
01:12:26,801 --> 01:12:31,263
and you and I are old friends,
I... I'd ask you to help us.
1085
01:12:31,347 --> 01:12:32,514
Help you?
1086
01:12:32,598 --> 01:12:35,350
I told you some time back
business hasn't been going so well.
1087
01:12:36,352 --> 01:12:39,479
Since then, it's gone worse. I'm bankrupt.
1088
01:12:40,147 --> 01:12:44,359
So I say to myself,
"Why not talk to my old pal, Louis Mazzini
1089
01:12:45,152 --> 01:12:49,865
"who we used to have such jolly times with
round the old nursery fire
1090
01:12:50,408 --> 01:12:52,033
"roasting chestnuts."
1091
01:12:52,118 --> 01:12:54,202
I'm afraid your memory is deceiving you.
1092
01:12:54,287 --> 01:12:58,874
By no stretch of imagination could you and
I be described as ever having been "pals".
1093
01:12:58,958 --> 01:13:01,501
If I remember correctly,
we detested each other cordially
1094
01:13:01,586 --> 01:13:02,752
from the first day we met,
1095
01:13:02,837 --> 01:13:05,338
with a detestation
which increased with our years.
1096
01:13:05,423 --> 01:13:09,050
Always thought of you as a pal.
Always have done.
1097
01:13:09,844 --> 01:13:11,136
That's why I said to myself...
1098
01:13:11,220 --> 01:13:13,680
It's only fair to warn you
that any further expense of breath
1099
01:13:13,764 --> 01:13:15,682
on this subject would be a waste.
1100
01:13:16,851 --> 01:13:18,852
You know what you're doing?
1101
01:13:18,936 --> 01:13:21,897
- Condemning me to death.
- What do you mean?
1102
01:13:21,981 --> 01:13:25,525
Only one way out for me,
do away with myself.
1103
01:13:26,027 --> 01:13:28,445
If you knew how absurd
these histrionics sounded...
1104
01:13:28,529 --> 01:13:31,990
I'm insured. At least the little woman
will be provided for.
1105
01:13:32,074 --> 01:13:35,410
- Oh, don't be ridiculous.
- Louis, I appeal to you.
1106
01:13:35,786 --> 01:13:39,706
Not for my sake,
but for the sake of the little woman.
1107
01:13:39,790 --> 01:13:42,125
Please rise from that absurd position.
1108
01:13:57,391 --> 01:14:00,602
All I can say is
I think you're a cad.
1109
01:14:01,145 --> 01:14:02,687
A selfish cad.
1110
01:14:04,941 --> 01:14:07,275
Let me remind you
of a little not-so-ancient history.
1111
01:14:08,027 --> 01:14:10,862
When I was a draper's assistant and you
a rich father's son,
1112
01:14:10,947 --> 01:14:12,530
you showed me no kindness.
1113
01:14:12,615 --> 01:14:16,284
Now our positions are reversed,
and you come whining to me for favours.
1114
01:14:16,369 --> 01:14:19,204
Draper's assistant. That's right.
1115
01:14:19,288 --> 01:14:21,748
Rotten little counterjumper.
That's all you are.
1116
01:14:22,708 --> 01:14:25,085
Very high and mighty now
1117
01:14:25,169 --> 01:14:28,380
but your mother married
an Italian organ-grinder.
1118
01:14:31,342 --> 01:14:32,717
- Stand up.
- Huh?
1119
01:14:32,802 --> 01:14:34,761
I said stand up.
1120
01:14:36,138 --> 01:14:39,599
I will not tolerate hearing
my mother's name on your coarse tongue.
1121
01:14:47,775 --> 01:14:51,361
If you take my advice, you'll go
and put your head under a cold tap.
1122
01:14:51,445 --> 01:14:55,115
I refuse to demean myself
by fighting with a drunken oaf.
1123
01:15:07,211 --> 01:15:10,296
There seemed no point
in prolonging this vulgar brawl
1124
01:15:10,381 --> 01:15:12,507
so I returned to my apartment.
1125
01:15:19,682 --> 01:15:22,100
I took a bath and decided to relax
for half an hour
1126
01:15:22,184 --> 01:15:24,477
and efface this disagreeable scene
from my memory.
1127
01:15:26,897 --> 01:15:28,857
I was not allowed to relax for long.
1128
01:15:34,530 --> 01:15:35,947
Sibella.
1129
01:15:39,118 --> 01:15:42,620
Louis, I'm sorry to worry you
when you must be so busy
1130
01:15:42,705 --> 01:15:44,831
but I have a piece
of important news.
1131
01:15:45,416 --> 01:15:46,541
Bad news.
1132
01:15:47,126 --> 01:15:49,127
I thought
you ought to know it at once.
1133
01:15:56,761 --> 01:15:58,553
Lionel has found out about us.
1134
01:15:59,972 --> 01:16:02,140
About me coming here.
1135
01:16:02,224 --> 01:16:03,933
- Really?
- Yes.
1136
01:16:04,018 --> 01:16:05,060
Oh.
1137
01:16:06,395 --> 01:16:10,023
I had the most dreadful scene
with him last night.
1138
01:16:11,108 --> 01:16:14,778
Well, I suppose even Lionel isn't
stupid enough to be deceived forever.
1139
01:16:14,862 --> 01:16:17,197
You won't take it so calmly
when you hear.
1140
01:16:18,491 --> 01:16:20,742
He's going to start
divorce proceedings.
1141
01:16:20,826 --> 01:16:22,869
How very unsophisticated of him.
1142
01:16:24,622 --> 01:16:28,958
There's only one possible
way out that I can see.
1143
01:16:30,461 --> 01:16:33,963
- And that is?
- Lionel is still in love with me.
1144
01:16:34,799 --> 01:16:37,175
My happiness
is all he cares about.
1145
01:16:37,885 --> 01:16:40,970
He might do the gentlemanly thing
and let me divorce him.
1146
01:16:41,972 --> 01:16:43,056
If?
1147
01:16:44,600 --> 01:16:47,143
If I were in a position to explain to him
1148
01:16:47,228 --> 01:16:50,188
that otherwise he will be jeopardizing
the social position
1149
01:16:50,272 --> 01:16:52,607
not only of the future duke,
1150
01:16:52,691 --> 01:16:55,360
but also the future duchess of Chalfont.
1151
01:16:57,530 --> 01:16:58,738
I see.
1152
01:17:05,371 --> 01:17:08,623
You're a clever little thing, Sibella,
but not quite clever enough.
1153
01:17:08,707 --> 01:17:10,041
What do you mean?
1154
01:17:10,126 --> 01:17:12,669
I mean that not only do I know
that you're blackmailing me,
1155
01:17:12,753 --> 01:17:14,963
an ugly word,
but the only appropriate one,
1156
01:17:15,047 --> 01:17:17,632
but I also know
that you're bluffing me.
1157
01:17:17,716 --> 01:17:19,759
Call my bluff and see.
1158
01:17:19,844 --> 01:17:21,177
I will.
1159
01:17:25,266 --> 01:17:26,975
Let me explain.
1160
01:17:27,059 --> 01:17:29,602
It must have seemed to you
that you hold a very strong hand.
1161
01:17:29,687 --> 01:17:32,063
But... A very important "but",
1162
01:17:32,148 --> 01:17:36,484
it so happens that I hold a card which
you did not even know to be in the pack.
1163
01:17:36,569 --> 01:17:37,861
Who's bluffing now?
1164
01:17:37,945 --> 01:17:41,114
It so happens that I was with Lionel
less than an hour ago.
1165
01:17:41,198 --> 01:17:44,617
And it was transparently clear
from his demeanour and conversation
1166
01:17:44,702 --> 01:17:48,163
that he had not the faintest suspicion
that you and I had any relationship
1167
01:17:48,247 --> 01:17:50,999
other than that of,
as he would probably put it,
1168
01:17:51,458 --> 01:17:55,587
old pals who used to roast chestnuts
together round the jolly old nursery fire.
1169
01:17:57,590 --> 01:18:00,800
So, while thanking you
for the honour that you've done me,
1170
01:18:00,885 --> 01:18:03,720
I must decline your offer
because I have other arrangements
1171
01:18:03,804 --> 01:18:05,597
which make it impossible for me
to accept it.
1172
01:18:05,681 --> 01:18:07,140
Namely?
1173
01:18:07,224 --> 01:18:10,602
I'm shortly going to announce
my engagement to Mrs D'Ascoyne.
1174
01:18:19,528 --> 01:18:22,572
May I say that I think
you've behaved despicably?
1175
01:18:25,117 --> 01:18:29,579
Has it ever occurred to you, Sibella,
that we serve each other right, you and I?
1176
01:18:34,710 --> 01:18:38,504
Would it be asking too much of your manners
to escort me to the door?
1177
01:18:45,930 --> 01:18:48,765
I had suspected
that to confide our secret to the Duke
1178
01:18:48,849 --> 01:18:52,018
might be an adroit manoeuvre,
and I was proved correct
1179
01:18:52,102 --> 01:18:56,731
for it produced an invitation for Edith
and me to spend a few days at the castle.
1180
01:18:57,816 --> 01:19:01,653
I must confess that I could not suppress
an agreeable sensation of triumph
1181
01:19:01,737 --> 01:19:03,905
as I approached
the castle gateway
1182
01:19:03,989 --> 01:19:07,367
in circumstances so different
from those in which I had last done so.
1183
01:19:08,327 --> 01:19:09,994
It was just an informal
little house party.
1184
01:19:11,789 --> 01:19:15,750
Our fellow guests were Lady Redpole
and her daughter Maud
1185
01:19:15,834 --> 01:19:19,128
who most suitably resembled
nothing so much as a red poll cow
1186
01:19:19,213 --> 01:19:21,172
and had little more
conversational ability.
1187
01:19:21,257 --> 01:19:24,259
- Did you go to the opera this season?
- No.
1188
01:19:27,513 --> 01:19:30,932
In the afternoon,
Ethelred invited me to inspect the castle.
1189
01:19:31,016 --> 01:19:33,226
It was pleasant to stand
on the battlements
1190
01:19:33,310 --> 01:19:36,604
and know that the acres
which stretched as far as the eye could see
1191
01:19:36,689 --> 01:19:38,523
would soon be mine.
1192
01:19:38,941 --> 01:19:42,986
And it amused me to cover much the same
ground as that of my sixpenny tour.
1193
01:19:44,113 --> 01:19:46,572
I had never been in a building
so lavishly equipped
1194
01:19:46,657 --> 01:19:48,992
with the instruments
of violent death.
1195
01:19:49,076 --> 01:19:50,994
Feel the weight of that.
1196
01:19:51,078 --> 01:19:53,621
Our ancestors must have
been fine men, Louis.
1197
01:19:56,667 --> 01:19:58,584
They seemed, however, ill-adapted
1198
01:19:58,669 --> 01:20:01,587
to the discreet requirements
of 20th-century homicide.
1199
01:20:02,673 --> 01:20:07,802
And the end of the day found my host still
intact and myself still without a plan.
1200
01:20:14,768 --> 01:20:17,061
Beautiful woman, Edith.
1201
01:20:17,146 --> 01:20:18,855
You're a lucky fellow, Louis.
1202
01:20:18,939 --> 01:20:21,149
I never cease to be conscious of that.
1203
01:20:21,525 --> 01:20:23,568
- Thank you.
- What do you think of Maud?
1204
01:20:24,069 --> 01:20:25,528
A charming girl,
1205
01:20:25,612 --> 01:20:28,906
though perhaps at times her conversation
is a little lacking in sparkle.
1206
01:20:28,991 --> 01:20:31,367
Dullest woman I ever met in my life.
1207
01:20:33,829 --> 01:20:35,621
Plain too.
1208
01:20:36,248 --> 01:20:38,374
But good breeding stock.
1209
01:20:40,961 --> 01:20:43,254
Good breeding stock, the Redpoles.
1210
01:20:43,964 --> 01:20:46,174
And they litter
a very high proportion of boys.
1211
01:20:48,552 --> 01:20:50,428
Do I gather you to mean...
1212
01:20:50,512 --> 01:20:53,035
Spoke to old Lady
Redpole this afternoon.
1213
01:20:53,036 --> 01:20:55,558
Only too glad to get the
girl off her hands.
1214
01:20:56,143 --> 01:20:57,518
My congratulations.
1215
01:20:59,521 --> 01:21:01,606
Duty to the family, really.
1216
01:21:02,232 --> 01:21:04,484
And when does the union take place?
1217
01:21:04,568 --> 01:21:07,195
Very soon.
I'm not growing any younger.
1218
01:21:07,279 --> 01:21:11,157
Might not get a son the first time.
Quiet wedding, I thought.
1219
01:21:11,241 --> 01:21:13,659
Maud's hardly the type for St Margaret's.
1220
01:21:14,495 --> 01:21:18,498
We shall honeymoon on the Riviera
and then go on to Italy afterwards.
1221
01:21:18,582 --> 01:21:21,209
No sense inflicting her on one's friends.
1222
01:21:23,003 --> 01:21:26,047
When she's got a family,
that'll keep her out of the way.
1223
01:21:27,966 --> 01:21:30,927
This news threw me
into such distress of mind
1224
01:21:31,011 --> 01:21:32,804
that had I had poison
in my possession
1225
01:21:32,888 --> 01:21:36,057
I would probably have administered it
to Ethelred there and then
1226
01:21:36,141 --> 01:21:38,518
and chanced the consequent inquiries.
1227
01:21:40,104 --> 01:21:43,856
One thing was clear,
If I did not succeed in disposing of him
1228
01:21:43,941 --> 01:21:46,359
during this present visit
to the castle
1229
01:21:46,443 --> 01:21:49,404
I was likely to see the ruin
of my whole campaign.
1230
01:21:52,616 --> 01:21:55,451
My best wishes
for a successful outcome.
1231
01:21:57,496 --> 01:21:59,747
The next morning
I went out shooting with Ethelred
1232
01:21:59,832 --> 01:22:01,749
or rather,
to watch Ethelred shooting
1233
01:22:01,834 --> 01:22:05,628
for my principles will not allow me
to take a direct part in blood sports.
1234
01:22:05,712 --> 01:22:07,468
Been round the traps this morning,
Hoskins?
1235
01:22:07,469 --> 01:22:08,423
Not yet, Your Grace.
1236
01:22:08,507 --> 01:22:11,134
Sounds as if we've bagged one there.
1237
01:22:11,218 --> 01:22:16,347
Ah. Been losing so much game lately,
we've started setting the mantraps again.
1238
01:22:25,107 --> 01:22:29,444
Hoskins is now going to thrash you.
Then he'll let you go.
1239
01:22:29,528 --> 01:22:32,697
Let this be a lesson to you
not to poach on my land.
1240
01:22:43,584 --> 01:22:45,001
That'll do.
1241
01:22:54,094 --> 01:22:57,305
Keep moving them around, Hoskins,
or they'll tell each other where they are.
1242
01:22:57,389 --> 01:22:59,015
Yes, Your Grace.
1243
01:23:00,809 --> 01:23:03,102
- I thought mantraps were illegal.
- They are.
1244
01:23:03,812 --> 01:23:05,104
What happens if he tells the police?
1245
01:23:05,189 --> 01:23:08,774
He comes up before the bench for poaching,
gets six months in jail.
1246
01:23:08,859 --> 01:23:12,653
If he keeps his mouth shut,
he just gets a few days in bed.
1247
01:23:13,238 --> 01:23:14,989
Which would you choose?
1248
01:23:20,245 --> 01:23:23,706
Only way to deal with these ruffians,
I assure you.
1249
01:23:23,790 --> 01:23:28,002
Oh. I must have dropped my cigarette case
back there. I'll catch you up.
1250
01:23:45,562 --> 01:23:47,230
- Find it?
- Yes, thanks.
1251
01:23:47,314 --> 01:23:50,900
Might have another walk round
this afternoon, if you feel like it.
1252
01:23:51,860 --> 01:23:53,486
That would be most pleasant.
1253
01:23:53,570 --> 01:23:58,074
After luncheon we went out
to massacre a few more unfortunate birds.
1254
01:23:59,076 --> 01:24:01,077
- Listen.
- What is it?
1255
01:24:01,161 --> 01:24:03,955
I thought I heard something,
like someone running through the bracken.
1256
01:24:04,039 --> 01:24:06,332
Another poaching ruffian! Come on!
1257
01:24:11,171 --> 01:24:13,464
There was someone here. Look.
1258
01:24:15,175 --> 01:24:16,801
Blast!
1259
01:24:16,885 --> 01:24:19,762
Louis, get me out of this. Hurry up, man.
1260
01:24:23,976 --> 01:24:26,477
- Have you gone mad?
- Be quiet, Ethelred.
1261
01:24:27,104 --> 01:24:29,272
I want to talk to you for a minute.
1262
01:24:29,356 --> 01:24:32,441
If you make a noise,
I shall blow your head off at once.
1263
01:24:34,319 --> 01:24:36,362
By the time anyone has heard the shot
1264
01:24:36,446 --> 01:24:39,907
I shall be running back toward the castle,
shouting for help.
1265
01:24:40,951 --> 01:24:43,327
I shall say that you stepped on the trap
1266
01:24:43,954 --> 01:24:46,872
and that your gun went off
accidentally as it fell.
1267
01:24:46,957 --> 01:24:48,082
So be quiet.
1268
01:24:49,543 --> 01:24:52,044
To spare you as much pain as possible
1269
01:24:52,504 --> 01:24:53,588
I'll be brief.
1270
01:24:58,385 --> 01:25:00,845
When I've finished, I shall kill you.
1271
01:25:02,556 --> 01:25:04,932
You'll be the sixth D'Ascoyne
that I've killed.
1272
01:25:05,017 --> 01:25:06,392
You want to know why?
1273
01:25:07,853 --> 01:25:10,730
In return for what
the D'Ascoynes did to my mother.
1274
01:25:11,648 --> 01:25:16,902
Because she married for love
instead of for rank or money or land,
1275
01:25:17,779 --> 01:25:21,115
they condemned her to a life
of poverty and slavery
1276
01:25:21,199 --> 01:25:23,534
in a world with which
they had not equipped her to deal.
1277
01:25:23,619 --> 01:25:26,662
You yourself refused to grant
her dying wish
1278
01:25:26,747 --> 01:25:28,831
which was to be buried here at Chalfont.
1279
01:25:29,333 --> 01:25:32,793
When I saw her poor little coffin
slide underground,
1280
01:25:33,378 --> 01:25:36,213
saw her exiled in death
as she'd been in life,
1281
01:25:37,382 --> 01:25:41,052
I swore to have my revenge
on your intolerable pride.
1282
01:25:43,221 --> 01:25:47,892
That revenge
I am just about to complete.
1283
01:25:50,854 --> 01:25:52,980
It's clear that you are insane.
1284
01:25:53,732 --> 01:25:54,982
Give me that gun at once.
1285
01:25:55,609 --> 01:25:56,901
No.
1286
01:25:59,237 --> 01:26:01,719
From here, I think,
the wound should look
1287
01:26:01,720 --> 01:26:04,200
consistent with the story
that I shall tell.
1288
01:26:13,585 --> 01:26:14,710
Help!
1289
01:26:15,796 --> 01:26:16,921
Help!
1290
01:26:17,506 --> 01:26:18,673
Help!
1291
01:26:20,133 --> 01:26:23,302
And so Ethelred,
Eighth Duke of Chalfont,
1292
01:26:23,595 --> 01:26:26,389
duly came to his place in the family vault.
1293
01:26:31,061 --> 01:26:33,521
There were few D'Ascoynes
left to mourn him.
1294
01:26:33,605 --> 01:26:37,650
My employer, who was Ninth Duke of Chalfont
for the shortest possible period,
1295
01:26:37,734 --> 01:26:41,237
having expired of shock on hearing
that he had succeeded to the title.
1296
01:26:43,532 --> 01:26:48,035
And so, I became
the 10th Duke of Chalfont.
1297
01:26:51,623 --> 01:26:55,042
Fortunately, the Ninth Duke
had found time before he expired
1298
01:26:55,127 --> 01:26:58,504
to make a will bequeathing to me
his interests in the business.
1299
01:27:01,341 --> 01:27:02,925
You may remove that.
1300
01:27:11,268 --> 01:27:14,687
A day or two later, an affecting
little feudal ceremony took place
1301
01:27:14,771 --> 01:27:16,522
to welcome me into residence at the castle.
1302
01:27:16,606 --> 01:27:19,942
And I promise you
that my first consideration,
1303
01:27:20,026 --> 01:27:24,613
and that of Mrs D'Ascoyne, who has done me
the honour to consent to be my bride,
1304
01:27:25,198 --> 01:27:29,994
will be the welfare of the estate
and of the people who live on it.
1305
01:27:30,078 --> 01:27:32,329
God bless you all.
1306
01:27:39,671 --> 01:27:41,380
Long live His Grace!
1307
01:27:41,465 --> 01:27:43,090
Long live His Grace.
1308
01:27:50,098 --> 01:27:52,725
Pennyman, Your Grace,
from Sprockett's Farm.
1309
01:27:52,809 --> 01:27:54,435
Mrs Pennyman.
1310
01:27:54,519 --> 01:27:56,437
My son, Tom, from Sprockett's Farm.
1311
01:27:57,105 --> 01:27:59,565
Mr Wyvold, from Sprockett's Farm.
1312
01:28:01,026 --> 01:28:02,610
Sprockett's Farm?
1313
01:28:04,070 --> 01:28:06,405
No, Your Grace. From Scotland Yard.
1314
01:28:09,075 --> 01:28:10,618
Scotland Yard?
1315
01:28:11,369 --> 01:28:13,245
A matter of some delicacy.
1316
01:28:19,085 --> 01:28:20,586
Follow me, please.
1317
01:28:21,087 --> 01:28:24,590
The blow was so sudden that
I found it hard to collect my thoughts.
1318
01:28:26,301 --> 01:28:28,177
Which of them could it be?
1319
01:28:28,970 --> 01:28:32,515
Young Ascoyne? Henry? Ethelred?
1320
01:28:33,391 --> 01:28:36,727
The parson? The general?
1321
01:28:36,812 --> 01:28:38,395
Lady Agatha?
1322
01:28:38,480 --> 01:28:40,606
Or could it be all of them?
1323
01:28:45,779 --> 01:28:47,112
Now.
1324
01:28:47,197 --> 01:28:50,032
You are, I take it,
His Grace, the Duke of Chalfont?
1325
01:28:50,116 --> 01:28:51,242
I am.
1326
01:28:51,326 --> 01:28:55,830
I am Detective inspector Burgoyne
of the Criminal investigation Department.
1327
01:28:55,914 --> 01:28:58,249
And I hold a warrant for your arrest
on a charge of murder.
1328
01:28:58,667 --> 01:28:59,834
Murder?
1329
01:29:00,544 --> 01:29:02,169
Of murdering Mr Lionel Holland at...
1330
01:29:02,254 --> 01:29:03,420
Murdering whom?
1331
01:29:03,505 --> 01:29:05,047
Mr Lionel Holland
1332
01:29:05,131 --> 01:29:08,551
at number 242 Connaught Square,
Bayswater
1333
01:29:08,635 --> 01:29:10,803
on the 17th of October last.
1334
01:29:21,481 --> 01:29:24,775
Utterly bewildered,
I tried to fathom what series of events
1335
01:29:24,860 --> 01:29:28,028
could conceivably have led
to this not-very-amusing irony.
1336
01:29:28,488 --> 01:29:30,823
I could only suppose that Lionel
had actually carried out
1337
01:29:30,907 --> 01:29:32,658
that drunken threat of suicide.
1338
01:29:33,869 --> 01:29:36,078
But how then had the blame fallen on me?
1339
01:29:36,746 --> 01:29:40,082
Time alone, and the trial,
would reveal the answer.
1340
01:29:40,166 --> 01:29:44,044
Seeing no reason to forego any of
the available privileges of my rank...
1341
01:29:48,800 --> 01:29:51,719
I exercised my right to be tried
before the House of Lords.
1342
01:29:51,803 --> 01:29:56,390
Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini, Duke of Chalfont,
1343
01:29:56,474 --> 01:29:59,351
you, as a peer of England,
are indicted for murder.
1344
01:30:00,228 --> 01:30:01,937
How say you, Your Grace?
1345
01:30:02,022 --> 01:30:05,900
Are you guilty of the felony with which
you are charged or not guilty?
1346
01:30:06,443 --> 01:30:08,777
- Not guilty.
- How will you be tried?
1347
01:30:10,447 --> 01:30:15,284
- By God and my peers.
- God send Your Grace a good deliverance.
1348
01:30:15,702 --> 01:30:20,331
It shall be the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth
1349
01:30:20,415 --> 01:30:21,999
so help me God.
1350
01:30:22,667 --> 01:30:26,337
Mrs Holland, will you tell
Their Lordships in your own words
1351
01:30:26,421 --> 01:30:28,672
the substance of the conversation
you had with your husband
1352
01:30:28,798 --> 01:30:30,674
the evening before his death?
1353
01:30:32,510 --> 01:30:35,679
He told me that Louis...the prisoner,
1354
01:30:36,473 --> 01:30:39,600
was coming to see him the next day
on a rather delicate matter.
1355
01:30:39,684 --> 01:30:41,685
Did he indicate what that matter was?
1356
01:30:43,855 --> 01:30:46,941
He had discovered that
the prisoner and I had been...
1357
01:30:48,485 --> 01:30:50,444
Had been on terms of intimacy?
1358
01:30:51,863 --> 01:30:54,531
- Yes.
- And what was his attitude?
1359
01:30:55,700 --> 01:30:58,494
He felt that the correct thing to do
was to tell him to his face
1360
01:30:58,536 --> 01:31:01,372
that he intended to start
proceedings for divorce.
1361
01:31:02,040 --> 01:31:03,499
From your knowledge of the prisoner
1362
01:31:03,541 --> 01:31:05,960
how would you expect him
to receive that news?
1363
01:31:07,545 --> 01:31:09,880
I should expect him to be very angry.
1364
01:31:10,799 --> 01:31:14,218
Now he was heir to a dukedom,
he had no more use for me.
1365
01:31:14,552 --> 01:31:17,471
I see. He was trying to discard you.
1366
01:31:18,139 --> 01:31:19,223
Yes.
1367
01:31:19,349 --> 01:31:22,685
Mrs Holland, I apologise for submitting you
to this ordeal
1368
01:31:23,353 --> 01:31:27,189
but will you tell Their Lordships
how you found your husband's body?
1369
01:31:29,567 --> 01:31:32,319
I came back about 4:30.
1370
01:31:34,906 --> 01:31:38,492
Their Lordships have no objection
to the witness being seated.
1371
01:31:42,914 --> 01:31:44,498
Yes, Mrs Holland?
1372
01:31:46,376 --> 01:31:48,585
I came back about 4:30.
1373
01:31:49,254 --> 01:31:51,588
I went into my husband's study.
1374
01:31:52,340 --> 01:31:54,842
He was lying on the floor
1375
01:31:55,844 --> 01:31:58,012
with a dagger stuck in his chest.
1376
01:31:58,722 --> 01:32:00,264
One last question, Mrs Holland.
1377
01:32:00,932 --> 01:32:04,435
Had your husband ever, at any time,
threatened suicide?
1378
01:32:05,437 --> 01:32:08,063
- Never.
- Thank you, Mrs Holland.
1379
01:32:11,234 --> 01:32:13,610
My client craves
Their Lordships' permission
1380
01:32:13,695 --> 01:32:15,612
to cross-examine the witness himself.
1381
01:32:16,281 --> 01:32:18,282
Their Lordships grant their permission.
1382
01:32:21,953 --> 01:32:25,956
Mrs Holland, you understand
the meaning of being on oath?
1383
01:32:26,041 --> 01:32:27,916
Of course.
1384
01:32:29,627 --> 01:32:33,255
You realise that a life may depend upon
the truthfulness of your evidence?
1385
01:32:35,383 --> 01:32:36,633
Yes.
1386
01:32:38,636 --> 01:32:41,138
I put it to you that your story
of your conversation with your husband
1387
01:32:41,264 --> 01:32:43,891
on the night before his death
is a complete fabrication.
1388
01:32:43,975 --> 01:32:45,434
It is not.
1389
01:32:46,644 --> 01:32:48,896
I put it to you
that your husband committed suicide.
1390
01:32:49,314 --> 01:32:52,149
He would never have done that
without leaving a message for me.
1391
01:32:52,275 --> 01:32:54,151
Can you swear that he did not?
1392
01:32:55,487 --> 01:32:57,488
The police searched the room
very thoroughly.
1393
01:32:59,074 --> 01:33:00,824
They didn't find anything.
1394
01:33:02,327 --> 01:33:06,914
I suggest that your evidence is a tissue
of lies dictated by motives of revenge.
1395
01:33:11,961 --> 01:33:13,754
It is not.
1396
01:33:14,339 --> 01:33:15,839
It is not.
1397
01:33:15,924 --> 01:33:19,843
I presume that the prisoner has some
purpose in these submissions
1398
01:33:19,928 --> 01:33:21,804
other than that of distressing the witness.
1399
01:33:22,472 --> 01:33:24,640
My purpose, my lord,
is to determine the truth.
1400
01:33:25,600 --> 01:33:28,852
That, Your Grace,
is the whole purpose of this assembly.
1401
01:33:31,189 --> 01:33:35,109
...the whole truth and nothing
but the truth, so help me God.
1402
01:33:38,655 --> 01:33:42,116
You're Edith D'Ascoyne Mazzini,
Duchess of Chalfont?
1403
01:33:42,200 --> 01:33:43,450
I am.
1404
01:33:43,535 --> 01:33:46,370
When and where did you become
the wife of the accused?
1405
01:33:47,038 --> 01:33:49,706
Yesterday morning, in Pentonville Prison.
1406
01:33:51,209 --> 01:33:54,211
I wanted to publish irrevocably
before the whole world
1407
01:33:54,963 --> 01:33:56,380
my faith in his innocence.
1408
01:33:58,341 --> 01:34:00,467
I wanted to show by my marriage
1409
01:34:01,386 --> 01:34:03,804
that though he was led astray,
as I believe
1410
01:34:03,888 --> 01:34:06,807
by that innate kindliness
and courtesy of his
1411
01:34:06,891 --> 01:34:09,852
which made it so hard for him to rebuff
the advances of a woman,
1412
01:34:10,562 --> 01:34:12,146
I nevertheless regard him as a man
1413
01:34:12,230 --> 01:34:14,648
to whom I can happily entrust
the remainder of my life.
1414
01:34:15,233 --> 01:34:17,568
I am not alone
in these opinions of him.
1415
01:34:18,194 --> 01:34:20,028
My late husband, Henry,
1416
01:34:20,071 --> 01:34:22,197
and his late Uncle Ethelred,
the Eighth Duke
1417
01:34:23,241 --> 01:34:26,243
both unfortunately
unable to testify today...
1418
01:34:27,245 --> 01:34:31,206
These and other members of the
D'Ascoyne family, had they been alive
1419
01:34:31,249 --> 01:34:34,042
would, I know, have echoed
every word that I have said.
1420
01:34:34,752 --> 01:34:36,587
Thank you, Your Grace.
1421
01:34:37,922 --> 01:34:39,756
The deceased was a client
of the banking house
1422
01:34:39,883 --> 01:34:41,925
of which you are chairman
and managing director.
1423
01:34:42,051 --> 01:34:43,177
He was.
1424
01:34:43,261 --> 01:34:45,409
In the normal course of
business transactions
1425
01:34:45,410 --> 01:34:47,556
he would have come to
see you at your office.
1426
01:34:47,599 --> 01:34:48,724
Yes.
1427
01:34:48,766 --> 01:34:51,059
Instead of which,
he asked you to go to his house.
1428
01:34:51,102 --> 01:34:52,186
Yes.
1429
01:34:52,270 --> 01:34:54,771
He invited you to his house
to discuss business.
1430
01:34:54,856 --> 01:34:55,939
Yes.
1431
01:34:56,024 --> 01:34:58,108
And you ask Their Lordships
to believe that?
1432
01:34:58,693 --> 01:34:59,860
Yes.
1433
01:35:00,445 --> 01:35:02,613
In the course of this, business discussion
1434
01:35:02,697 --> 01:35:06,116
he burst into tears, fell on his knees
and threatened suicide.
1435
01:35:06,242 --> 01:35:09,119
- Yes.
- ls that usual in business discussions?
1436
01:35:09,621 --> 01:35:12,247
- Not usual. No.
- But it happened on this occasion.
1437
01:35:12,332 --> 01:35:15,584
- Yes. - And you ask Their Lordships
to believe that?
1438
01:35:16,085 --> 01:35:17,669
Yes.
1439
01:35:17,754 --> 01:35:20,505
Then this, business discussion
became so heated
1440
01:35:20,590 --> 01:35:23,800
that blows were exchanged
and he made a murderous attack on you.
1441
01:35:23,885 --> 01:35:25,052
Yes.
1442
01:35:25,136 --> 01:35:27,930
- Is that usual in business discussion?
- No.
1443
01:35:28,014 --> 01:35:31,350
- But it happened on this occasion.
- Yes.
1444
01:35:31,434 --> 01:35:35,604
- And you ask Their Lordships
to believe that? - Yes.
1445
01:35:36,356 --> 01:35:37,481
Very well.
1446
01:35:38,316 --> 01:35:41,777
You've heard of cases of a jealous husband
and his wife's lover coming to blows?
1447
01:35:42,278 --> 01:35:44,196
- Yes.
- Frequently?
1448
01:35:44,822 --> 01:35:47,574
It is one of the clich�s
of the cheaper kind of fiction.
1449
01:35:51,371 --> 01:35:54,790
I put it to you that, in this case,
it happened not in fiction,
1450
01:35:54,874 --> 01:35:56,083
but in fact.
1451
01:35:56,167 --> 01:35:59,378
- I put it to you that it did not.
- I put it to you further
1452
01:35:59,462 --> 01:36:03,340
that being unaware at that time
of your future wife's forgiving nature
1453
01:36:03,424 --> 01:36:06,301
you assumed that if you were cited
in a divorce suit
1454
01:36:06,386 --> 01:36:09,972
it would ruin your chances
of making this advantageous match
1455
01:36:10,056 --> 01:36:12,516
with a wealthy and beautiful woman.
1456
01:36:13,643 --> 01:36:15,310
No. Not at all.
1457
01:36:15,395 --> 01:36:19,564
Still, you were proposing
to discard Mrs Holland.
1458
01:36:19,649 --> 01:36:21,108
No.
1459
01:36:21,192 --> 01:36:24,569
Even though you were
about to be married to the other lady?
1460
01:36:31,828 --> 01:36:35,289
I must confess to feeling
quite intrigued as to their decision.
1461
01:36:44,549 --> 01:36:49,594
My lords, the question
for Your Lordships is this...
1462
01:36:50,805 --> 01:36:52,848
ls the prisoner guilty
1463
01:36:52,932 --> 01:36:56,560
of the felony whereof
he stands indicted
1464
01:36:56,644 --> 01:36:58,645
or not guilty?
1465
01:37:02,025 --> 01:37:03,567
Guilty, upon mine honour.
1466
01:37:04,694 --> 01:37:06,862
Guilty, upon mine honour.
1467
01:37:07,655 --> 01:37:10,198
Guilty, upon mine honour.
1468
01:37:18,207 --> 01:37:22,294
I considered it both seemly and touching
that my dear wife should visit me
1469
01:37:22,378 --> 01:37:25,213
as she did this morning,
to make her farewells.
1470
01:37:26,507 --> 01:37:29,760
Your arrival, on the other hand,
appears to me unseemly
1471
01:37:29,844 --> 01:37:31,803
and tasteless in the extreme.
1472
01:37:32,555 --> 01:37:36,391
I couldn't bear my last sight of you
to be that look of hatred you gave me
1473
01:37:36,517 --> 01:37:38,268
as you went out from the trial.
1474
01:37:39,228 --> 01:37:43,398
In view of the fact that your evidence
had put the rope round my neck
1475
01:37:43,483 --> 01:37:46,360
you could hardly expect
a glance of warm affection.
1476
01:37:46,444 --> 01:37:49,696
- Isn't there any hope?
- What hope could there be?
1477
01:37:51,032 --> 01:37:53,241
I was only thinking.
1478
01:37:53,326 --> 01:37:55,660
That question you asked at the trial
1479
01:37:56,537 --> 01:37:59,122
about Lionel leaving a suicide note...
1480
01:38:00,375 --> 01:38:03,794
Suppose he did?
Suppose that one were found
1481
01:38:03,878 --> 01:38:06,797
even now, this last evening?
1482
01:38:07,673 --> 01:38:11,176
- It would savour of a miracle.
- Miracles can happen.
1483
01:38:12,345 --> 01:38:14,179
Miracles could happen.
1484
01:38:18,893 --> 01:38:20,143
I see.
1485
01:38:21,646 --> 01:38:24,523
Oh, strange, isn't it, how things turn out?
1486
01:38:24,607 --> 01:38:27,234
Now, if you had married me,
instead of Edith...
1487
01:38:28,069 --> 01:38:30,695
Or you had married me,
instead of Lionel.
1488
01:38:31,447 --> 01:38:32,906
He would still be alive,
1489
01:38:32,990 --> 01:38:35,951
and you wouldn't be going
to be hanged tomorrow morning.
1490
01:38:36,953 --> 01:38:39,871
Unless, of course,
you've murdered somebody else.
1491
01:38:44,127 --> 01:38:46,128
All of which is rather beside the point,
isn't it?
1492
01:38:46,212 --> 01:38:47,295
Is it?
1493
01:38:49,924 --> 01:38:52,259
Do you remember in the old days
1494
01:38:52,343 --> 01:38:55,595
how we used to play
Eeny, meeny, miny, mo?
1495
01:38:55,680 --> 01:39:00,392
- Catch a nigger by his toe.
- If he hollers, let him go. Out goes he.
1496
01:39:02,061 --> 01:39:05,605
Quite a lot of little niggers have gone
out, haven't they, one way or another?
1497
01:39:06,607 --> 01:39:09,568
And every one of them a D'Ascoyne.
1498
01:39:13,573 --> 01:39:16,283
We do seem to be
a very short-lived family.
1499
01:39:17,243 --> 01:39:20,829
Of course, Edith is only
a D'Ascoyne by marriage
1500
01:39:20,913 --> 01:39:23,290
so I suppose
her prospects are better.
1501
01:39:26,502 --> 01:39:28,003
Except for a miracle.
1502
01:39:28,671 --> 01:39:31,006
Like the other one
we were talking about.
1503
01:39:31,090 --> 01:39:34,926
So there it was.
She would find the suicide note
1504
01:39:35,011 --> 01:39:37,596
if I, in return, would murder Edith.
1505
01:39:38,681 --> 01:39:41,141
So we now have two miracles in mind, do we?
1506
01:39:41,851 --> 01:39:42,976
Yes.
1507
01:39:43,060 --> 01:39:46,521
I wonder if they are, in any way,
dependent on each other?
1508
01:39:48,191 --> 01:39:50,358
I suppose perhaps they might be.
1509
01:39:52,361 --> 01:39:54,154
What do you think?
1510
01:39:55,948 --> 01:39:57,324
Time's up.
1511
01:40:02,205 --> 01:40:03,914
What do you think?
1512
01:40:05,333 --> 01:40:09,419
Poor Edith. I'm afraid all this is going
to take years off her life.
1513
01:40:13,090 --> 01:40:16,510
- Au revoir, Louis.
- Au revoir.
1514
01:40:17,720 --> 01:40:19,638
What could I do but accept?
1515
01:40:19,722 --> 01:40:22,849
After all, I could always decide afterwards
1516
01:40:22,934 --> 01:40:25,977
which of these two little niggers
would finally have to go.
1517
01:40:26,062 --> 01:40:27,562
Dear Edith.
1518
01:40:28,272 --> 01:40:30,398
Captivating Sibella.
1519
01:40:30,483 --> 01:40:34,110
How different they were,
and how well I knew each of them.
1520
01:40:34,987 --> 01:40:36,363
Or so I thought.
1521
01:40:37,198 --> 01:40:40,033
But the night has gone by
and nothing has happened.
1522
01:40:40,618 --> 01:40:42,869
It is now but a few minutes to 8:00.
1523
01:40:42,954 --> 01:40:47,040
And I realise that Sibella
came yesterday merely to tantalise,
1524
01:40:47,124 --> 01:40:50,126
to raise my hopes
in order to dash them again.
1525
01:40:50,211 --> 01:40:52,671
How unlike me not to have guessed.
1526
01:40:53,506 --> 01:40:57,342
But, after all, how very like Sibella.
1527
01:41:21,742 --> 01:41:23,076
Already?
1528
01:41:24,579 --> 01:41:26,788
I'll tell you who time gallops withal.
1529
01:41:26,872 --> 01:41:28,498
"With a thief to the gallows,
1530
01:41:28,583 --> 01:41:33,753
"for though he tread as softly as foot can
fall, he thinks himself too soon there."
1531
01:41:34,880 --> 01:41:36,423
If you have any last instructions...
1532
01:41:36,507 --> 01:41:40,302
I think, Colonel, it only remains
to thank you for your many kindnesses.
1533
01:41:41,012 --> 01:41:42,679
Won't you introduce our friend?
1534
01:41:44,640 --> 01:41:48,018
Mr Elliott, His Grace,
the Duke of Chalfont.
1535
01:41:50,021 --> 01:41:51,521
Good morning, Your Grace.
1536
01:41:52,440 --> 01:41:54,065
This won't take a moment.
1537
01:41:54,775 --> 01:41:58,528
First,
if Your Grace will pardon the liberty
1538
01:41:58,613 --> 01:42:01,281
I should like to read some verses
1539
01:42:01,365 --> 01:42:05,160
composed by myself for use
on these melancholy occasions.
1540
01:42:06,537 --> 01:42:08,997
- Your Grace permits?
- With pleasure.
1541
01:42:14,378 --> 01:42:17,005
"My friend, reflect.
1542
01:42:17,590 --> 01:42:20,175
Oh. Pardon.
1543
01:42:21,010 --> 01:42:23,219
"Your Grace, reflect.
1544
01:42:23,804 --> 01:42:29,059
"While yet of mortal breath,
some span however short, is left to thee
1545
01:42:29,769 --> 01:42:34,189
"how brief the total span
twixt birth and death
1546
01:42:34,273 --> 01:42:39,152
"how long thy coming tenure of eternity.
1547
01:42:41,405 --> 01:42:44,157
"Your Grace, prepare..."
1548
01:42:48,329 --> 01:42:50,205
Colonel.
1549
01:42:55,211 --> 01:42:56,461
Your Grace,
1550
01:42:56,545 --> 01:42:58,296
I am happy to inform you
that a telephone communication
1551
01:42:58,381 --> 01:43:00,423
has just been received
from the Home Office.
1552
01:43:00,508 --> 01:43:03,510
A note has been found,
undoubtedly in Mr Holland's handwriting
1553
01:43:03,594 --> 01:43:06,388
expressing his intention to commit suicide.
1554
01:43:06,472 --> 01:43:07,597
It is a miracle.
1555
01:43:08,641 --> 01:43:11,309
Yes. It is like a miracle.
1556
01:43:12,687 --> 01:43:14,229
Pending receipt of further instructions
1557
01:43:14,313 --> 01:43:17,649
I will try to make you reasonably
comfortable in my quarters.
1558
01:43:18,901 --> 01:43:21,444
- Good morning.
- Good morning, Your Grace, sir.
1559
01:43:29,537 --> 01:43:33,415
I assure you I have never been more happy
to be relieved of an official duty.
1560
01:43:34,542 --> 01:43:35,917
Poor Elliott.
1561
01:43:36,460 --> 01:43:38,795
If he had not insisted
on reading that abominable poem
1562
01:43:38,879 --> 01:43:42,090
he would have had me neatly dangling at the
end of his rope before the news arrived.
1563
01:43:43,467 --> 01:43:45,343
He was so looking forward to it.
1564
01:43:45,428 --> 01:43:47,512
I understand, Your Grace,
from the men on duty outside
1565
01:43:47,596 --> 01:43:49,889
that a large crowd awaits your leaving.
1566
01:43:49,974 --> 01:43:51,766
Having robbed them
of the pleasure of my death
1567
01:43:51,851 --> 01:43:53,727
the least I can do
is to let them see me alive.
1568
01:43:54,520 --> 01:43:57,731
Including, by the way,
not only Her Grace, the duchess
1569
01:43:57,815 --> 01:43:59,566
but also Mrs Holland.
1570
01:43:59,650 --> 01:44:01,025
Oh.
1571
01:44:01,694 --> 01:44:03,278
How does the song go?
1572
01:44:03,362 --> 01:44:07,615
"How happy could I be with either
were t'other dear charmer away."
1573
01:44:07,700 --> 01:44:08,742
Well, good-bye.
1574
01:44:08,826 --> 01:44:10,785
Good-bye, Your Grace.
1575
01:44:43,527 --> 01:44:45,945
"How happy could I be with either
1576
01:44:46,030 --> 01:44:48,239
"were t'other dear charmer away."
1577
01:44:50,409 --> 01:44:52,660
- Your Grace.
- Yes?
1578
01:44:53,370 --> 01:44:55,789
I represent the magazine Titbits
1579
01:44:55,873 --> 01:44:57,749
by whom I'm commissioned
to approach you
1580
01:44:57,833 --> 01:45:00,126
for the publication rights
of your memoirs.
1581
01:45:00,586 --> 01:45:02,086
My memoirs?
1582
01:45:03,214 --> 01:45:04,631
My memoirs.
1583
01:45:07,510 --> 01:45:09,427
My memoirs.
1584
01:45:10,000 --> 01:45:13,092
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