1
00:02:01,204 --> 00:02:02,538
(BELL RINGING)

2
00:02:13,049 --> 00:02:14,424
(GATE UNLOCKING)

3
00:02:17,053 --> 00:02:19,721
- Evening, Mr Elliott.
- Good evening.

4
00:02:23,059 --> 00:02:24,726
Brr.

5
00:02:24,769 --> 00:02:27,146
- Just sign the book, if you will?
- Yes.

6
00:02:27,897 --> 00:02:30,732
- Been keeping you busy, Mr Elliott?
- Oh, just nicely.

7
00:02:30,817 --> 00:02:33,402
Went up to Manchester on Monday,
a poisoner.

8
00:02:33,486 --> 00:02:37,072
Baby-farmer at Holloway this morning.
Very ordinary crimes, both of them.

9
00:02:37,115 --> 00:02:39,491
This one we've got for you tomorrow
is something special.

10
00:02:39,576 --> 00:02:41,326
Yes, very much so.

11
00:02:41,411 --> 00:02:43,620
Even after all my years
in the profession,

12
00:02:43,746 --> 00:02:45,831
I'm quite looking forward to him.

13
00:02:45,915 --> 00:02:47,958
- Well, I must be getting along.
- Good night, Mr Elliott.

14
00:02:48,084 --> 00:02:49,793
- Good night.
- Usual cup of tea at 7:00?

15
00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:50,919
Oh, please.

16
00:02:52,088 --> 00:02:55,841
Even my lamented master,
the great Mr Barry himself

17
00:02:55,925 --> 00:02:58,343
never had the privilege
of hanging a duke.

18
00:02:58,428 --> 00:02:59,636
Yes.

19
00:02:59,762 --> 00:03:03,098
What a finale to a lifetime
in the public service.

20
00:03:03,141 --> 00:03:05,976
- "Finale"?
- Yes, I intend to retire.

21
00:03:06,102 --> 00:03:08,604
After using the silken rope,

22
00:03:08,688 --> 00:03:11,857
never again be content with hemp.

23
00:03:11,941 --> 00:03:14,443
- Quite. Well, here we are.
- Oh, thank you.

24
00:03:31,169 --> 00:03:32,920
How will he approach it?

25
00:03:32,962 --> 00:03:35,589
I should think
as the calmest you've ever known.

26
00:03:35,632 --> 00:03:38,467
Noblesse oblige, doubtless.

27
00:03:38,593 --> 00:03:43,096
A difficult client can make things
most distressing.

28
00:03:43,139 --> 00:03:45,974
Some of them tend
to be very hysterical.

29
00:03:46,017 --> 00:03:47,935
So inconsiderate.

30
00:03:48,019 --> 00:03:51,980
Well, Colonel, considering
the importance of the occasion,

31
00:03:52,023 --> 00:03:54,149
I shall retire early.

32
00:03:54,275 --> 00:03:58,779
The last execution of a duke in this country
was very badly bungled.

33
00:03:58,821 --> 00:04:01,448
That was in the old days of the axe,
of course.

34
00:04:01,491 --> 00:04:02,824
Yes.

35
00:04:03,660 --> 00:04:06,328
Oh, I... I almost forgot.

36
00:04:06,454 --> 00:04:09,456
Um, you must forgive my ignorance

37
00:04:09,499 --> 00:04:12,501
but when we meet in the morning,

38
00:04:12,543 --> 00:04:15,045
what is the correct form of address?

39
00:04:15,171 --> 00:04:17,547
- Your Lordship?
- Your Grace.

40
00:04:17,674 --> 00:04:21,009
"Your Grace"? Oh.

41
00:04:21,052 --> 00:04:22,678
Thank you.

42
00:04:24,347 --> 00:04:28,850
Good morning, Your Grace.

43
00:04:41,990 --> 00:04:44,866
- All right. Sit down.
- Ah, good evening, Colonel. Glass of wine?

44
00:04:44,993 --> 00:04:47,577
Good evening, Your Grace.
Uh, thank you, no.

45
00:04:47,704 --> 00:04:51,748
I, uh, I called to inquire whether
you had any special wishes for breakfast.

46
00:04:51,874 --> 00:04:54,876
(EXHALES)
Just coffee and a slice of toast, thank you.

47
00:04:55,003 --> 00:04:56,878
Oh, and perhaps a few grapes.

48
00:04:57,005 --> 00:04:58,880
I hate to disappoint
the newspaper-reading public

49
00:04:59,007 --> 00:05:01,925
but it'll be too early
for the conventional hearty breakfast.

50
00:05:02,051 --> 00:05:04,052
The appointment is at 8:00,
is it not?

51
00:05:04,095 --> 00:05:06,096
At 8:00, uh, yes.

52
00:05:06,222 --> 00:05:09,725
If I may venture to say so,
I am amazed at your calmness.

53
00:05:11,728 --> 00:05:14,354
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 --> 00:05:18,942
"When a man knows that he's going
to be hanged in a few hours,

56
00:05:19,068 --> 00:05:21,445
"it concentrates his mind wonderfully."

57
00:05:21,946 --> 00:05:25,574
Yes. Well, if there is nothing further
I can do for you...

58
00:05:25,700 --> 00:05:27,075
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
00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:33,081
I regret to say, yes.

61
00:05:34,751 --> 00:05:37,252
- Good night, Your Grace.
- Good night, Colonel.

62
00:05:46,304 --> 00:05:50,098
LOUIS: A brief history
of the events leading thereto

63
00:05:50,224 --> 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
00:06:00,276 --> 00:06:03,111
to those who remain to read it.

67
00:06:03,154 --> 00:06:05,113
(GUARD SNORES)

68
00:06:07,450 --> 00:06:09,076
(SNORES)

69
00:06:09,118 --> 00:06:13,288
My good man, it is not by my choice
that you keep me company.

70
00:06:13,331 --> 00:06:17,125
If you wish to sleep, pray do me
the courtesy of sleeping quietly.

71
00:06:20,463 --> 00:06:23,673
With so little time
remaining to complete my story,

72
00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:26,426
it is difficult to choose
where to begin it.

73
00:06:26,469 --> 00:06:28,011
Perhaps I should begin
at the beginning.

74
00:06:28,137 --> 00:06:29,179
(BABY CRYING)

75
00:06:29,305 --> 00:06:34,518
I was a healthy baby,
born of an English mother and Italian father,

76
00:06:34,644 --> 00:06:35,977
(GASPS)

77
00:06:36,020 --> 00:06:39,981
Who succumbed to a heart attack
at the moment of first setting eyes on me.

78
00:06:40,024 --> 00:06:44,194
In the circumstances, it will be understood
that I have but slight memory of him.

79
00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:46,780
The little I know comes
from what Mama told me.

80
00:07:08,302 --> 00:07:10,637
Your father was a very handsome man.

81
00:07:10,680 --> 00:07:12,222
(SINGING IN ITALIAN)

82
00:08:04,233 --> 00:08:07,402
Mama was the daughter
of the seventh duke of Chalfont

83
00:08:07,528 --> 00:08:09,404
of Chalfont Castle.

84
00:08:10,448 --> 00:08:12,741
She eloped with her handsome singer

85
00:08:12,867 --> 00:08:16,578
and exchanged the medieval splendours
of Chalfont Castle

86
00:08:16,704 --> 00:08:18,079
for the modern conveniences

87
00:08:18,122 --> 00:08:20,749
of No 73, Balaclava Avenue, SW.

88
00:08:22,793 --> 00:08:24,878
(SINGING IN ITALIAN)

89
00:08:29,759 --> 00:08:33,887
They were poor, but they had
five happy and harmonious years

90
00:08:33,930 --> 00:08:37,599
before my arrival sent Papa off
to join the heavenly choir.

91
00:08:43,481 --> 00:08:46,399
Reduced to even deeper poverty
by my father's death,

92
00:08:46,442 --> 00:08:48,318
Mama swallowed her pride

93
00:08:48,444 --> 00:08:52,072
and made an effort at reconciliation
with her family.

94
00:08:52,114 --> 00:08:54,783
They did not even reply to her letter.

95
00:08:55,952 --> 00:08:58,161
In order to keep us both alive,
she was reduced

96
00:08:58,287 --> 00:09:00,580
to the horrible expedient
of taking in a lodger.

97
00:09:02,708 --> 00:09:06,294
For him, she had to perform
the most menial tasks.

98
00:09:06,420 --> 00:09:10,757
She felt that her family had conspired
to cheat me of my birthright,

99
00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:12,968
and I passed
from infancy to childhood

100
00:09:13,094 --> 00:09:16,388
in an atmosphere
of family history and genealogies.

101
00:09:17,598 --> 00:09:19,307
The dukedom had been bestowed

102
00:09:19,433 --> 00:09:22,894
by Charles II
on Colonel Henry D'Ascoyne

103
00:09:23,771 --> 00:09:27,065
for services rendered to His Majesty
during his exile.

104
00:09:28,150 --> 00:09:30,986
Later, for services rendered
to His Majesty

105
00:09:31,112 --> 00:09:34,072
after his restoration by the Duchess,

106
00:09:34,574 --> 00:09:36,491
the title was granted
the unique privilege

107
00:09:36,576 --> 00:09:39,077
of descending by the female
as well as the male line.

108
00:09:40,454 --> 00:09:41,496
Louis.

109
00:09:41,622 --> 00:09:43,999
It was therefore theoretically possible

110
00:09:44,125 --> 00:09:47,168
that via Mama I might inherit the dukedom.

111
00:09:49,839 --> 00:09:51,840
Mama scraped and saved

112
00:09:51,924 --> 00:09:55,093
and sent me to the best school
she could afford.

113
00:09:55,177 --> 00:09:58,138
One little incident of my school days
occurs to me as amusing

114
00:09:58,180 --> 00:09:59,973
in relation to my present situation.

115
00:10:00,016 --> 00:10:01,683
Lionel Holland.

116
00:10:02,852 --> 00:10:04,644
What is the Sixth Commandment?

117
00:10:05,855 --> 00:10:07,856
Come, come now.

118
00:10:08,983 --> 00:10:10,108
Someone else then.

119
00:10:10,192 --> 00:10:12,360
I know, please, Miss Waterman.

120
00:10:12,486 --> 00:10:14,779
Louis Mazzini. Tell him.

121
00:10:16,616 --> 00:10:19,200
- Thou shalt not kill.
- Quite right, Louis.

122
00:10:19,285 --> 00:10:21,870
The Sixth Commandment is,
"Thou shalt not kill."

123
00:10:21,996 --> 00:10:23,663
LOUIS: No, in those days,

124
00:10:23,706 --> 00:10:26,833
I never had any trouble
with the Sixth Commandment.

125
00:10:26,876 --> 00:10:31,296
As to the Seventh, I was hardly of an age
to concern myself with it.

126
00:10:31,380 --> 00:10:34,507
Although I was old enough
to be in love.

127
00:10:34,550 --> 00:10:37,469
So Sibella enters my story.

128
00:10:37,553 --> 00:10:40,055
Sibella and her brother, Graham,
were my only close friends

129
00:10:40,181 --> 00:10:42,307
and we grew up together.

130
00:10:42,391 --> 00:10:46,895
In their case, Mama relaxed her objection
to my associating with the local children.

131
00:10:47,563 --> 00:10:51,566
At least their father, Dr Halworth,
was a professional man.

132
00:10:52,693 --> 00:10:56,696
Louis, we must think very carefully
about your future.

133
00:10:57,239 --> 00:10:59,074
Well, it should be quite easy
to get a job.

134
00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:01,910
Not a job, dear. A career.

135
00:11:03,871 --> 00:11:06,498
I had hoped for Cambridge for you.

136
00:11:06,582 --> 00:11:08,917
The D'Ascoynes always go to Trinity.

137
00:11:09,001 --> 00:11:12,087
And then, perhaps, the diplomatic.

138
00:11:12,213 --> 00:11:15,340
But I'm afraid it's no use
looking as high as that.

139
00:11:16,342 --> 00:11:18,760
However, when you've
passed your examination

140
00:11:18,844 --> 00:11:21,763
that should equip you for a start
in one of the professions.

141
00:11:21,847 --> 00:11:26,101
People of quite good family go into
the professions nowadays, I understand.

142
00:11:27,269 --> 00:11:29,938
Now, who do we know
who could help us?

143
00:11:30,940 --> 00:11:35,193
We don't really know anyone,
except the family, and they don't know us.

144
00:11:35,277 --> 00:11:37,946
The least we can do
is try once more.

145
00:11:40,449 --> 00:11:43,118
I shall write
to Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne.

146
00:11:43,244 --> 00:11:45,954
He can surely do something
in that bank of his.

147
00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:49,124
Bank, Mama? Is that a profession?

148
00:11:49,250 --> 00:11:51,960
This is a private bank, Louis, dear.

149
00:11:52,086 --> 00:11:54,546
They don't pass money over the counter.

150
00:11:54,630 --> 00:11:56,464
LOUIS: The letter was duly dispatched

151
00:11:56,549 --> 00:11:58,800
and this time we did get an answer.

152
00:11:58,926 --> 00:12:02,137
"Madam, I am instructed
by Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne

153
00:12:02,263 --> 00:12:05,473
"to inform you that he is not aware
of your son's existence

154
00:12:05,558 --> 00:12:08,643
"as a member
of the D'Ascoyne family."

155
00:12:08,769 --> 00:12:11,146
Signed by his secretary.

156
00:12:11,272 --> 00:12:14,816
It's very stupid of him, of them all,
not to admit your existence

157
00:12:14,942 --> 00:12:17,777
when one day you might be
duke of Chalfont.

158
00:12:17,820 --> 00:12:19,821
It's a very big "might," Mama.

159
00:12:19,905 --> 00:12:22,323
There must be at least 12 people
before me

160
00:12:22,450 --> 00:12:24,784
to say nothing of the ones
who haven't been born yet.

161
00:12:24,827 --> 00:12:27,412
Stranger things have happened.

162
00:12:27,496 --> 00:12:30,498
I don't wish to be unchristian,
but in view of their attitude,

163
00:12:30,624 --> 00:12:34,085
I could almost wish those 12 people
should all die tomorrow.

164
00:12:35,504 --> 00:12:37,338
All except one, Mama.

165
00:12:37,465 --> 00:12:40,967
Because you must be duchess
of Chalfont before I'm duke.

166
00:12:43,763 --> 00:12:47,849
It will have to be a job, not a career,
after all, Mama.

167
00:12:47,933 --> 00:12:50,268
I'm afraid so, Louis.

168
00:12:50,352 --> 00:12:52,771
(SOBBING) A D'Ascoyne in trade.

169
00:12:52,855 --> 00:12:55,315
LOUIS: Did poor Mama's silly dreaming

170
00:12:55,357 --> 00:12:58,860
plant in my brain some seed
which was afterwards to grow

171
00:12:58,986 --> 00:13:02,447
into the most sensational
criminal endeavour of the century?

172
00:13:02,531 --> 00:13:04,866
If so, I was not conscious of it
at the time

173
00:13:04,992 --> 00:13:07,285
for there were things
of more immediate concern.

174
00:13:07,369 --> 00:13:09,954
Even potential dukes have to eat.

175
00:13:10,039 --> 00:13:13,458
Mr Perkins,
our lodger for nearly 15 years,

176
00:13:13,542 --> 00:13:15,168
did his best to be helpful.

177
00:13:15,211 --> 00:13:17,837
He was employed as shop walker
in a local drapery store

178
00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:19,839
and found employment for me there.

179
00:13:19,882 --> 00:13:22,133
The possible future duke of Chalfont

180
00:13:22,218 --> 00:13:26,471
became what was known
as a general assistant at the drapery.

181
00:13:26,555 --> 00:13:30,683
This humiliation continued
for two dispiriting years.

182
00:13:31,811 --> 00:13:34,813
And then one day, Mama,
who had broken her glasses

183
00:13:34,897 --> 00:13:37,232
and could not afford
to have them mended,

184
00:13:37,316 --> 00:13:40,235
was knocked down by a tram
near Clapham Junction

185
00:13:40,361 --> 00:13:42,237
and fatally injured.

186
00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:46,908
- (WEAKLY) Louis.
- Yes, Mama.

187
00:13:48,369 --> 00:13:51,496
I should like to be buried
at Chalfont,

188
00:13:52,206 --> 00:13:54,207
in the family vault.

189
00:13:55,918 --> 00:13:57,377
Yes, Mama.

190
00:14:06,595 --> 00:14:11,099
I wrote to the Duke
informing him of Mama's dying wish.

191
00:14:11,183 --> 00:14:14,269
His reply
was the curtest possible refusal.

192
00:14:14,395 --> 00:14:18,857
Standing by Mama's poor little grave
in that hideous suburban cemetery,

193
00:14:18,941 --> 00:14:23,403
I made an oath that I would revenge
the wrongs her family had done her.

194
00:14:24,780 --> 00:14:28,074
It was no more than
a piece of youthful bravado

195
00:14:28,117 --> 00:14:32,871
but it was one of those acorns
from which great oaks are destined to grow.

196
00:14:32,955 --> 00:14:35,582
Even then I went so far
as to examine the family tree

197
00:14:35,624 --> 00:14:38,418
and prune it
to just the living members.

198
00:14:38,460 --> 00:14:41,129
But what could I do to hurt them?

199
00:14:41,213 --> 00:14:43,506
What could I take from them,

200
00:14:43,591 --> 00:14:47,135
except, perhaps, their lives?

201
00:14:47,219 --> 00:14:49,929
I indulged for a moment
in a fantasy of all 12 of them

202
00:14:50,014 --> 00:14:52,765
being wiped out simultaneously
at a family reunion

203
00:14:52,850 --> 00:14:54,559
by my unseen hand.

204
00:14:54,643 --> 00:14:59,439
Of the penniless boy from Clapham being
miraculously transplanted to his birthright.

205
00:14:59,523 --> 00:15:02,275
I even speculated
as to how I might contrive it.

206
00:15:03,861 --> 00:15:05,820
But there were
other more urgent problems.

207
00:15:05,905 --> 00:15:09,657
Mama's tiny income came from an annuity
and had died with her.

208
00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:15,496
The problem of how to live
on 25 shillings a week was solved for me

209
00:15:15,581 --> 00:15:18,750
by an invitation from Dr Halworth
to lodge with them.

210
00:15:18,834 --> 00:15:22,587
It was galling to accept the status
of a poor relation

211
00:15:22,671 --> 00:15:26,716
but the certainty of seeing Sibella every day
was too tempting to be refused.

212
00:15:27,551 --> 00:15:31,054
Louis, I'm so glad you accepted.

213
00:15:31,138 --> 00:15:33,097
It was my idea, you know.

214
00:15:34,183 --> 00:15:36,684
- I've brought you something.
- Oh, Louis, you shouldn't have.

215
00:15:36,769 --> 00:15:39,145
You can't possibly afford it.

216
00:15:39,980 --> 00:15:41,689
(CAR HONKING)

217
00:15:41,774 --> 00:15:44,150
Oh, what a bother. There's Lionel.

218
00:15:44,568 --> 00:15:46,527
See you at supper.

219
00:15:49,239 --> 00:15:50,740
(DOOR CLOSING)

220
00:15:54,620 --> 00:15:56,120
(CAR DRIVING AWAY)

221
00:15:57,039 --> 00:16:00,625
The next few years
brought many such heartbreaks,

222
00:16:00,709 --> 00:16:02,627
but they also brought promotion.

223
00:16:02,711 --> 00:16:05,421
Laces and ribbons
at 30 shillings a week,

224
00:16:05,506 --> 00:16:08,049
fabrics at 32 and six.

225
00:16:08,133 --> 00:16:11,052
Finally, ladies' underwear at 35.

226
00:16:11,136 --> 00:16:12,387
(DOOR OPENING)

227
00:16:22,231 --> 00:16:24,691
I decided that
if I was to be a draper,

228
00:16:24,775 --> 00:16:28,111
at least I would not be
a suburban draper.

229
00:16:28,195 --> 00:16:32,198
So I migrated to a large modern store which
had just been opened in the West End,

230
00:16:32,282 --> 00:16:35,410
at the gigantic salary of �2 a week.

231
00:16:37,371 --> 00:16:40,748
Every lunchtime I went to see
how my inheritance was proceeding.

232
00:16:40,833 --> 00:16:43,793
Sometimes the deaths column
brought good news.

233
00:16:52,594 --> 00:16:55,763
Sometimes,
the births column brought bad.

234
00:16:57,474 --> 00:17:01,102
The advent of twin sons to the Duke
was a terrible blow.

235
00:17:03,772 --> 00:17:06,065
Fortunately, an epidemic of diphtheria

236
00:17:06,150 --> 00:17:09,152
restored the status quo almost immediately

237
00:17:09,236 --> 00:17:12,530
and even brought me a bonus
in the shape of the Duchess.

238
00:17:13,741 --> 00:17:16,409
That summer, the Halworths gave a party.

239
00:17:16,493 --> 00:17:18,077
(PIANO PLAYING)

240
00:17:18,162 --> 00:17:19,954
(PEOPLE CHATTERING)

241
00:17:24,209 --> 00:17:26,794
- Good evening, Sibella.
- Hello, Louis.

242
00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,715
- You do look nice.
- So do you.

243
00:17:30,799 --> 00:17:33,301
- Doesn't he, Lionel?
- Very.

244
00:17:33,385 --> 00:17:34,969
(LIONEL CLEARS THROAT)

245
00:17:42,227 --> 00:17:44,103
Emboldened by her kindness to me,

246
00:17:44,188 --> 00:17:47,190
I made a decision
I'd been toying with for some time.

247
00:17:48,650 --> 00:17:51,569
Well, that's the last of them,
thank heaven.

248
00:17:52,529 --> 00:17:54,947
- What an evening.
- I thought it was a very nice evening.

249
00:17:55,032 --> 00:17:57,075
It may have been for you. Oh!

250
00:17:57,159 --> 00:18:01,662
It's awful being a woman,
having to dance with a lot of dull men,

251
00:18:01,747 --> 00:18:04,749
laugh at their jokes
while they're treading on your feet.

252
00:18:04,833 --> 00:18:07,752
- I didn't tread on your feet.
- You're not dull.

253
00:18:07,836 --> 00:18:10,421
- And your jokes are funny.
- Thank you.

254
00:18:11,632 --> 00:18:13,883
- Sibella?
- Mmm-hmm?

255
00:18:13,967 --> 00:18:16,719
Sibella, will you marry me?

256
00:18:16,804 --> 00:18:18,846
(LAUGHS)

257
00:18:18,931 --> 00:18:21,641
Louis, of course not. Do get up.

258
00:18:21,725 --> 00:18:23,726
You may be half Italian,
but even so,

259
00:18:23,811 --> 00:18:26,354
you do look silly
playing the stage lover like that.

260
00:18:26,438 --> 00:18:28,898
- Oh, I look silly, do I?
- Yes. Very.

261
00:18:36,073 --> 00:18:38,032
Do I still look silly?

262
00:18:44,706 --> 00:18:46,791
Now, will you marry me?

263
00:18:47,626 --> 00:18:49,168
No.

264
00:18:49,837 --> 00:18:52,880
- Why not?
- Because I just said I'd marry Lionel.

265
00:18:55,259 --> 00:18:57,802
- You can't.
- Why not?

266
00:18:57,886 --> 00:18:59,720
Well, he's a clod.
He's not a gentleman.

267
00:19:00,389 --> 00:19:02,390
Listen to who's talking.

268
00:19:02,474 --> 00:19:05,726
Whoever heard of a gentleman
blacking the lodger's boots?

269
00:19:06,145 --> 00:19:09,021
That's a wicked thing to say.
Just because Mama was poor.

270
00:19:09,273 --> 00:19:11,315
Lionel will be very rich one day.

271
00:19:11,608 --> 00:19:15,361
- I might be a duke one day.
- Pigs might fly.

272
00:19:15,445 --> 00:19:18,823
No, I might. Really, I might.
You see, Mama was the daughter...

273
00:19:18,907 --> 00:19:20,700
(YAWNING) Oh, yes. I know.

274
00:19:20,784 --> 00:19:22,410
Well, when you are a duke,

275
00:19:22,494 --> 00:19:25,288
you just come and show me your crown,
or whatever it's called

276
00:19:25,372 --> 00:19:27,665
and then I'll feel awfully silly,
won't I?

277
00:19:27,749 --> 00:19:28,791
Yes, you will.

278
00:19:28,876 --> 00:19:32,378
Anyhow, I'm going to marry Lionel
and now I'm going to bed.

279
00:19:36,300 --> 00:19:39,177
- LOUIS: You will.
- (SIBELLA LAUGHING)

280
00:19:41,889 --> 00:19:43,472
LOUIS: If there was a precise moment

281
00:19:43,557 --> 00:19:46,642
at which my insubstantial dreaming
took on solid purpose

282
00:19:46,727 --> 00:19:48,603
that was it.

283
00:19:48,687 --> 00:19:51,606
The D'Ascoynes had not only
wronged my mother,

284
00:19:51,690 --> 00:19:55,193
they were the obstacle between me
and all that I wanted.

285
00:19:56,361 --> 00:20:00,072
The more I thought of them,
these people whom I had studied

286
00:20:00,157 --> 00:20:03,784
until I knew their names and histories
as well as I knew my own,

287
00:20:03,869 --> 00:20:06,996
the more they became monsters
of arrogance and cruelty

288
00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:11,167
whose only function in the world
was to deprive me of my birthright.

289
00:20:13,921 --> 00:20:17,298
I had seen Chalfont
only as Mama had painted it.

290
00:20:21,929 --> 00:20:24,764
To pass in through
that magnificent gateway,

291
00:20:24,848 --> 00:20:29,560
on Visitors Day at a cost of sixpence
was a humiliating experience,

292
00:20:29,645 --> 00:20:32,104
but I forced myself to undergo it.

293
00:20:32,189 --> 00:20:36,275
I wanted a closer view of the target
at which I had determined to aim.

294
00:20:37,653 --> 00:20:39,820
(INAUDIBLE)

295
00:20:39,905 --> 00:20:43,199
I little expected to catch
a glimpse of the bull's-eye.

296
00:20:47,579 --> 00:20:48,996
Excuse me, sir.

297
00:20:49,706 --> 00:20:52,875
There were then some eight people
between me and the dukedom

298
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:55,378
all seemingly equally out of reach.

299
00:20:55,462 --> 00:20:57,922
It is so difficult to make a neat job
of killing people

300
00:20:58,006 --> 00:21:00,841
with whom one is not
on friendly terms.

301
00:21:01,260 --> 00:21:04,387
I was almost resigned
to its being an impossibility

302
00:21:04,471 --> 00:21:08,266
when one afternoon, at a moment when
my thoughts were furthest from the subject

303
00:21:08,350 --> 00:21:10,393
fate took a hand.

304
00:21:10,477 --> 00:21:13,437
If you've nothing better,
those will have to do.

305
00:21:13,897 --> 00:21:16,315
These London shops
are so far behind Paris.

306
00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:18,693
Parcel them up quickly,
and we'll take them with us.

307
00:21:18,777 --> 00:21:21,612
- Charge them to my account.
- Yes, sir. What is the name?

308
00:21:22,406 --> 00:21:24,448
Mr Ascoyne D'Ascoyne.

309
00:21:26,201 --> 00:21:29,370
At last, I was face to face with one of them.

310
00:21:29,454 --> 00:21:32,748
This was the son
of Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne, the banker,

311
00:21:32,833 --> 00:21:35,793
whose refusal to help me
towards a more dignified career

312
00:21:35,877 --> 00:21:38,587
had led to my present
ignominious occupation.

313
00:21:39,506 --> 00:21:41,299
What right had this arrogant puppy

314
00:21:41,383 --> 00:21:45,094
to be standing on the other side
of the counter ordering me about?

315
00:21:45,178 --> 00:21:48,306
In my excitement and anger,
I listened openly to their conversation.

316
00:21:48,390 --> 00:21:51,183
I've booked rooms
at Cruickshanks' at Maidenhead.

317
00:21:51,268 --> 00:21:53,060
We'll go down late
on Friday afternoon.

318
00:21:53,145 --> 00:21:54,812
Are you sure it's safe?

319
00:21:54,896 --> 00:21:58,274
It's the most discreet place.
In fact, anonymous.

320
00:21:59,526 --> 00:22:02,987
Hey, you. Get on with that parcel,
and never mind what we're talking about.

321
00:22:03,071 --> 00:22:05,448
Don't you dare touch me like that!

322
00:22:05,532 --> 00:22:08,409
I'm not interested
in your idiotic conversation.

323
00:22:08,493 --> 00:22:11,954
If you want to add impertinence
to your eavesdropping

324
00:22:12,706 --> 00:22:14,874
we'll soon see about that.

325
00:22:16,626 --> 00:22:20,004
The upshot was
that I was dismissed on the spot.

326
00:22:20,088 --> 00:22:22,631
I decided to repay him in kind

327
00:22:22,716 --> 00:22:26,635
by dismissing him with equal
suddenness from this world.

328
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:30,890
His conversation had told me where I could
probably find the opportunity to kill him.

329
00:22:30,974 --> 00:22:34,518
Dr Halworth's dispensary
had provided me with a means.

330
00:22:36,813 --> 00:22:39,690
With the week's wages
I had received in lieu of notice,

331
00:22:39,775 --> 00:22:43,152
I invested in suitable apparel
for a weekend at Maidenhead.

332
00:22:52,954 --> 00:22:55,623
It was possible
they might remember me

333
00:22:55,707 --> 00:22:57,333
but I thought it unlikely,

334
00:22:57,417 --> 00:23:00,669
shop assistants being commonly
regarded as an inferior race

335
00:23:00,754 --> 00:23:03,881
who never emerged
from the other side of the counter.

336
00:23:07,052 --> 00:23:09,970
I decided
to take the bull by the horns.

337
00:23:11,431 --> 00:23:14,100
Forgive me. I wonder if you could
oblige me with a match.

338
00:23:14,184 --> 00:23:16,018
- Certainly.
- Thank you.

339
00:23:16,978 --> 00:23:20,648
- Haven't we met before somewhere?
- I don't think so.

340
00:23:21,316 --> 00:23:24,360
Funny, 'cause I could have sworn
I knew your face.

341
00:23:24,444 --> 00:23:26,654
- Were you at Monte last year?
- The year before.

342
00:23:26,738 --> 00:23:29,448
Ah, that must be it.
Won't you join me?

343
00:23:29,533 --> 00:23:31,700
Thank you. Not this evening.

344
00:23:31,785 --> 00:23:33,702
We are rather tired.

345
00:23:40,043 --> 00:23:43,212
I deprecated their retiring so early,

346
00:23:43,296 --> 00:23:45,214
but it was hard to blame them,

347
00:23:45,298 --> 00:23:47,883
for weekends, like life, are short.

348
00:23:49,052 --> 00:23:51,971
The next morning,
I waited for them to come down

349
00:23:52,055 --> 00:23:54,014
and the next afternoon.

350
00:23:56,810 --> 00:23:59,270
They didn't appear the whole day.

351
00:24:04,651 --> 00:24:05,943
Nor the morning after.

352
00:24:22,335 --> 00:24:24,253
I no longer felt sentimental.

353
00:24:24,337 --> 00:24:26,672
The weekend was nearly over,
and I could hardly expect providence

354
00:24:26,756 --> 00:24:30,217
to offer me
so promising a chance again.

355
00:24:30,302 --> 00:24:32,261
I was in a state of desperation

356
00:24:32,345 --> 00:24:35,556
and I followed them,
hoping for I knew not what.

357
00:24:36,683 --> 00:24:40,728
I had the poison with me, but they
hadn't even taken a picnic basket.

358
00:24:40,812 --> 00:24:44,482
It was possible, however, that they might
stop somewhere for refreshment.

359
00:24:47,319 --> 00:24:50,279
They did stop shortly afterwards,

360
00:24:50,363 --> 00:24:52,323
but not for that.

361
00:24:53,533 --> 00:24:56,994
Judging by past experience,
they would be there for hours.

362
00:25:17,307 --> 00:25:19,141
The rest followed automatically.

363
00:25:19,226 --> 00:25:22,603
I had fortunately learned to swim
at the Clapham Municipal Baths

364
00:25:22,687 --> 00:25:25,648
though I never had occasion
to try it underwater.

365
00:25:26,816 --> 00:25:29,610
I had no wish to surface
under their noses,

366
00:25:29,694 --> 00:25:32,905
though I doubt if they would have
noticed me even if I had.

367
00:25:38,328 --> 00:25:40,287
It was beautifully timed.

368
00:25:40,372 --> 00:25:43,082
(BELL RINGING)

369
00:26:14,823 --> 00:26:16,699
I was sorry about the girl,

370
00:26:16,825 --> 00:26:19,660
but found some relief in the reflection
that she had presumably,

371
00:26:19,744 --> 00:26:23,372
during the weekend, already undergone
a fate worse than death.

372
00:26:32,841 --> 00:26:36,719
I decided to defer consideration
of where and how I should next strike

373
00:26:36,845 --> 00:26:39,680
until my nerves
were thoroughly restored.

374
00:26:40,265 --> 00:26:42,349
It must be remembered
that I was very young

375
00:26:42,434 --> 00:26:45,769
and, furthermore,
I am not naturally callous.

376
00:26:47,856 --> 00:26:50,190
I suddenly conceived a brilliant idea.

377
00:26:51,901 --> 00:26:56,947
I would write a carefully phrased letter
of condolence to old Ascoyne D'Ascoyne.

378
00:26:57,032 --> 00:27:01,201
It would be an agreeable feeling of revenge
for his cruelty to Mama.

379
00:27:01,286 --> 00:27:04,288
And, further, it had not failed to occur to me
that there was, at the moment,

380
00:27:04,372 --> 00:27:06,457
a vacancy in the banking house.

381
00:27:07,542 --> 00:27:10,085
Ascoyne D'Ascoyne duly rose to the bait.

382
00:27:12,088 --> 00:27:14,548
Please be seated, Mr Mazzini.

383
00:27:18,887 --> 00:27:20,888
How do you do?

384
00:27:26,561 --> 00:27:28,479
My late son.

385
00:27:32,901 --> 00:27:34,234
A great loss.

386
00:27:34,736 --> 00:27:36,445
He was young and foolish

387
00:27:36,571 --> 00:27:40,115
but I believe had he been spared
until his maturity...

388
00:27:40,241 --> 00:27:43,911
It was my consciousness of that which led me
to presume to tender you my sympathy.

389
00:27:43,953 --> 00:27:46,080
I am glad that you did so.

390
00:27:46,122 --> 00:27:50,417
A loss so tragic serves to put lesser matters
in their proper perspective.

391
00:27:51,461 --> 00:27:53,962
If I remember rightly, Mr Mazzini,

392
00:27:54,089 --> 00:27:58,425
some years ago
I received a communication

393
00:27:58,468 --> 00:28:00,427
from your mother.

394
00:28:00,929 --> 00:28:02,304
My late mother.

395
00:28:10,021 --> 00:28:12,606
Hello, Louis.
You look very pleased with yourself.

396
00:28:12,691 --> 00:28:14,858
- So do you.
- I have news.

397
00:28:14,943 --> 00:28:16,443
- So have I.
- What is it?

398
00:28:16,486 --> 00:28:17,528
No, yours first.

399
00:28:17,612 --> 00:28:21,615
Lionel and I have fixed a date
for our wedding, in two months' time.

400
00:28:21,700 --> 00:28:23,283
My congratulations.

401
00:28:23,368 --> 00:28:26,537
No, I should congratulate him.
I compliment you.

402
00:28:26,621 --> 00:28:29,456
- Now yours.
- Nothing as exciting as yours.

403
00:28:30,458 --> 00:28:33,043
I went today to see Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne,
my cousin, you know.

404
00:28:33,712 --> 00:28:35,796
He has a private banking house
in the city.

405
00:28:35,839 --> 00:28:38,465
He offered me employment at once
at �5 a week

406
00:28:38,550 --> 00:28:40,884
with excellent prospects
for promotion.

407
00:28:42,137 --> 00:28:45,889
Louis, I'm so glad for you.

408
00:28:47,517 --> 00:28:51,145
- Louis, do you remember?
- What?

409
00:28:51,646 --> 00:28:54,064
Once, in this room,

410
00:28:55,316 --> 00:28:57,401
after my party...

411
00:28:57,986 --> 00:29:00,404
- I kissed you.
- Yes.

412
00:29:00,488 --> 00:29:02,364
And you were horrible to me.

413
00:29:02,490 --> 00:29:03,741
Yes.

414
00:29:04,659 --> 00:29:08,245
I made fun about you
being related to the D'Ascoynes.

415
00:29:09,497 --> 00:29:11,415
I'm sorry.

416
00:29:11,499 --> 00:29:13,083
You'll take it more seriously now?

417
00:29:13,168 --> 00:29:14,668
Yes.

418
00:29:15,712 --> 00:29:17,755
Louis, kiss me,

419
00:29:19,007 --> 00:29:21,341
to show you've forgiven me.

420
00:29:24,846 --> 00:29:28,432
No, it would be wrong.
You're pledged to Lionel.

421
00:29:28,516 --> 00:29:31,351
I behaved like a cad that night.

422
00:29:31,394 --> 00:29:34,354
I like you when you behave
like a cad.

423
00:29:34,439 --> 00:29:36,356
(MUSIC PLAYING)

424
00:29:41,237 --> 00:29:44,448
You're a person who must dance
through life, Sibella,

425
00:29:44,532 --> 00:29:47,242
and I hope Lionel won't tread
on your feet too often.

426
00:29:51,873 --> 00:29:54,208
LOUIS: My new employment
was humble enough

427
00:29:54,250 --> 00:29:57,878
but I had to test the rungs of the ladder
before I could climb it.

428
00:30:04,302 --> 00:30:07,262
- That's very nice.
- (LOUIS CLEARS THROAT)

429
00:30:07,722 --> 00:30:11,767
The next candidate for removal
seemed to be young Henry D'Ascoyne,

430
00:30:11,893 --> 00:30:14,478
24 years old, recently married,

431
00:30:14,562 --> 00:30:16,730
as yet, without issue.

432
00:30:16,815 --> 00:30:19,775
I had quite an accumulation by now
of D'Ascoyne data

433
00:30:19,901 --> 00:30:22,611
culled from newspapers and periodicals,

434
00:30:22,737 --> 00:30:25,614
and I looked through it
for a possible approach to Henry.

435
00:30:25,740 --> 00:30:27,574
I found one.

436
00:30:27,659 --> 00:30:30,744
I bought the necessary equipment,
second hand,

437
00:30:30,787 --> 00:30:33,664
and bicycled down
the following weekend.

438
00:30:33,748 --> 00:30:37,084
I had studied a couple of photographic
manuals during the week,

439
00:30:37,126 --> 00:30:39,837
and found that, in practice,
the mysteries of the camera

440
00:30:39,921 --> 00:30:42,631
demand a little more
than ordinary intelligence,

441
00:30:42,757 --> 00:30:46,510
plus the ability to judge
the subject upside-down.

442
00:30:46,594 --> 00:30:49,930
It was thus, indeed,
that I first saw Henry D'Ascoyne.

443
00:31:05,029 --> 00:31:08,532
My method of approach proved
an instantaneous success.

444
00:31:08,616 --> 00:31:12,035
Excuse me.
Isn't that a Thornton Pickard?

445
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:14,329
Yes. Are you a photographer?

446
00:31:14,455 --> 00:31:16,707
Dabble in it. Got a Sanger Shepherd.

447
00:31:16,791 --> 00:31:18,625
- A Sanger Shepherd?
- Nice little camera.

448
00:31:18,710 --> 00:31:21,378
Focal plane shutter,
rapid rectilinear and all that.

449
00:31:21,462 --> 00:31:24,214
Look here. Why not come up
to my house and I'll show it to you?

450
00:31:24,299 --> 00:31:26,466
Well, I'd be most interested.

451
00:31:27,844 --> 00:31:31,138
- My name's D'Ascoyne, by the way.
- Mine is Mazzini.

452
00:31:31,890 --> 00:31:34,349
LOUIS: He seemed a very pleasant fellow

453
00:31:34,475 --> 00:31:37,019
and I regretted that our acquaintanceship
must be so short.

454
00:31:38,187 --> 00:31:40,856
Had one of the potting sheds
fixed up as a darkroom.

455
00:31:40,982 --> 00:31:43,150
Couldn't have suited better
if it had been built for it.

456
00:31:43,192 --> 00:31:44,985
Had the equipment
sent down from town.

457
00:31:45,486 --> 00:31:48,822
And I must say the results
have been absolutely top-hole.

458
00:31:48,865 --> 00:31:52,951
I'll show you some quarter-plates
I've taken about the village.

459
00:31:54,829 --> 00:31:58,165
There we are.
Absolutely lightproof, except for this.

460
00:31:58,291 --> 00:32:03,003
Everything to hand, developing dishes here,
toning bath here, whole-plate enlarger.

461
00:32:03,129 --> 00:32:05,505
- Perfect.
- Not too bad, is it?

462
00:32:06,549 --> 00:32:09,051
Talking of the village, by the by,
I don't know if you're thinking

463
00:32:09,177 --> 00:32:11,970
of sending any of your efforts here
to some periodical,

464
00:32:12,013 --> 00:32:14,014
but there's just one thing.

465
00:32:15,475 --> 00:32:17,976
I'm sure you're a good fellow,
or I wouldn't like to ask.

466
00:32:18,019 --> 00:32:20,020
Ask what?

467
00:32:20,063 --> 00:32:23,690
I'd be most grateful if you'd keep back
that last plate you exposed.

468
00:32:24,359 --> 00:32:27,027
- The inn? But it was delightful.
- Yes.

469
00:32:27,654 --> 00:32:30,697
The fact is, my wife has views
about such places,

470
00:32:30,740 --> 00:32:32,866
so I never go in them,
you understand?

471
00:32:32,909 --> 00:32:34,993
Naturally, I wouldn't dream
of embarrassing you.

472
00:32:35,036 --> 00:32:38,580
I knew you were a good fellow.
Suppose we drink on it?

473
00:32:40,875 --> 00:32:44,044
Unless you have views yourself,
of course.

474
00:32:44,087 --> 00:32:45,712
- None.
- Splendid.

475
00:32:46,214 --> 00:32:49,049
What shall it be?
Sherry? Whisky?

476
00:32:49,759 --> 00:32:51,176
(LOUIS CHUCKLES)

477
00:32:52,220 --> 00:32:54,346
I think a small developer.

478
00:32:55,682 --> 00:32:59,059
LOUIS: The mental picture of his wife
that I had formed from Henry's words

479
00:32:59,102 --> 00:33:02,896
left me unprepared for the charm
of the woman I was to meet.

480
00:33:02,939 --> 00:33:06,400
She was as tall and slender as a lily
and as beautiful.

481
00:33:06,442 --> 00:33:09,277
My dear, this is Mr Mazzini.
He has a Thornton Pickard.

482
00:33:09,404 --> 00:33:11,571
Mr Mazzini, my wife.

483
00:33:12,281 --> 00:33:14,741
I'm no photographer myself,
Mr Mazzini,

484
00:33:14,867 --> 00:33:18,036
but I share my husband's pleasure
in welcoming a fellow enthusiast.

485
00:33:18,079 --> 00:33:20,956
- You'll take some sherry?
- Well, thank you, I...

486
00:33:26,587 --> 00:33:30,132
My husband and I never touch alcohol,
but we see no reason, on that account

487
00:33:30,258 --> 00:33:32,426
to enforce our views on our guests.

488
00:33:32,552 --> 00:33:33,885
Glass of sherry, Harwood.

489
00:33:33,928 --> 00:33:36,555
I have some printing frames
out in the sun.

490
00:33:36,597 --> 00:33:38,890
If you don't mind,
I'll just run out and see to them.

491
00:33:40,601 --> 00:33:43,103
Have you been in the neighbourhood long,
Mr Mazzini?

492
00:33:43,229 --> 00:33:44,938
A few hours only.

493
00:33:45,064 --> 00:33:47,107
I was cycling through the village

494
00:33:47,150 --> 00:33:49,776
and felt compelled to stop
and make a study or two of the inn.

495
00:33:49,902 --> 00:33:52,779
- It looked so charming.
- It does look charming.

496
00:33:53,573 --> 00:33:55,073
But I'm afraid it's, by no means,

497
00:33:55,116 --> 00:33:57,659
an influence for good
in the lives of our people here.

498
00:33:57,785 --> 00:33:59,453
The landlord
is a former coachman of ours.

499
00:33:59,579 --> 00:34:02,748
I have spoken to him several times about
the amount of drinking that goes on there

500
00:34:02,790 --> 00:34:04,833
but he continues to allow it.

501
00:34:04,959 --> 00:34:07,127
It is, after all, I suppose, his livelihood.

502
00:34:07,170 --> 00:34:09,296
I do not consider he has the right
to make a livelihood

503
00:34:09,422 --> 00:34:11,757
by exploiting the weaknesses
of his fellow men.

504
00:34:13,009 --> 00:34:15,302
Put as you put it,
it does sound deplorable.

505
00:34:15,428 --> 00:34:18,096
It is deplorable.
Will you excuse me a moment?

506
00:34:19,015 --> 00:34:20,140
Harwood.

507
00:34:21,100 --> 00:34:23,518
LOUIS: I could well understand
Henry's visits to the village inn

508
00:34:23,644 --> 00:34:26,146
and his stock of refreshments
in the darkroom.

509
00:34:26,189 --> 00:34:29,441
Mrs D'Ascoyne was beautiful,
but what a prig she was.

510
00:34:30,151 --> 00:34:33,361
I wondered how
to ingratiate myself with her,

511
00:34:33,488 --> 00:34:36,823
and decided to attack on her own ground
and with her own weapons.

512
00:34:36,866 --> 00:34:40,327
I'm afraid we can offer you
only a simple luncheon, Mr Mazzini.

513
00:34:40,369 --> 00:34:43,705
You are most kind,
but I feel I should not intrude.

514
00:34:43,831 --> 00:34:46,875
- It is no intrusion.
- I'm afraid it is.

515
00:34:48,336 --> 00:34:51,171
- May I explain?
- Please do.

516
00:34:54,801 --> 00:34:57,177
It was only when your husband
told me his name

517
00:34:57,303 --> 00:35:02,349
that I realised that I'd come by chance
into the most embarrassing situation.

518
00:35:02,475 --> 00:35:05,685
My mother was a member
of the D'Ascoyne family.

519
00:35:05,812 --> 00:35:08,688
She married,
as they thought, beneath her.

520
00:35:08,731 --> 00:35:11,316
And from that day,
they refused to recognise her

521
00:35:11,359 --> 00:35:13,527
or my existence.

522
00:35:14,195 --> 00:35:18,907
I feel that, although in the circumstances
you might hesitate to say so to my face,

523
00:35:19,033 --> 00:35:22,869
you and your husband would prefer
not to receive me at your table.

524
00:35:22,995 --> 00:35:26,540
Perhaps you would be good enough
to explain matters to your husband for me.

525
00:35:26,582 --> 00:35:29,376
I shall, naturally,
leave the neighbourhood at once.

526
00:35:29,418 --> 00:35:31,878
Mr Mazzini, please sit down.

527
00:35:33,047 --> 00:35:34,172
Oh.

528
00:35:36,425 --> 00:35:39,219
You have exhibited
the most delicate feelings.

529
00:35:39,762 --> 00:35:42,681
I know nothing of the history
to which you refer,

530
00:35:42,723 --> 00:35:45,559
but I have often felt that the attitude
of my husband's family

531
00:35:45,601 --> 00:35:47,686
has failed to move with the times,

532
00:35:47,728 --> 00:35:50,188
that they think too much
of the rights of nobility

533
00:35:50,231 --> 00:35:52,524
and too little of its duties.

534
00:35:52,567 --> 00:35:57,070
The very honesty of your behaviour
would appear to me to prove them wrong.

535
00:35:57,113 --> 00:36:00,282
Was Lord Tennyson far from the mark
when he wrote,

536
00:36:00,408 --> 00:36:02,742
"Kind hearts are more than coronets

537
00:36:02,785 --> 00:36:05,412
"and simple faith than Norman blood"?

538
00:36:05,913 --> 00:36:07,455
I hope you will stay to luncheon.

539
00:36:08,249 --> 00:36:12,419
Oh, in that case,
I shall be delighted and honoured.

540
00:36:12,628 --> 00:36:15,755
LOUIS: My impersonation
of a man of sterling character

541
00:36:15,882 --> 00:36:17,591
was such a resounding success

542
00:36:17,717 --> 00:36:22,095
that Mrs D'Ascoyne invited me to spend
the following Saturday-to-Monday with them.

543
00:36:24,098 --> 00:36:27,934
When I returned to the somewhat
contrasting atmosphere of Clapham,

544
00:36:27,977 --> 00:36:31,605
I found the house in a whirl with preparation
for Sibella's wedding to Lionel

545
00:36:31,731 --> 00:36:34,065
which was to take place next day.

546
00:36:34,108 --> 00:36:37,152
Before going to bed that evening,
I wandered into the old nursery

547
00:36:37,278 --> 00:36:39,237
to fetch a book I'd left there.

548
00:36:48,414 --> 00:36:50,165
LOUIS: Penny for them.

549
00:36:50,291 --> 00:36:52,459
(SADLY) Oh, hello, Louis.

550
00:36:55,504 --> 00:36:58,298
You're not looking as radiantly happy
as young females in your situation

551
00:36:58,424 --> 00:36:59,466
are supposed to look.

552
00:36:59,592 --> 00:37:02,969
I was just thinking of all the fun
we've had in this room.

553
00:37:03,095 --> 00:37:06,014
- You and I and Graham.
- And Lionel.

554
00:37:06,807 --> 00:37:08,975
Yes, and Lionel.

555
00:37:11,646 --> 00:37:15,482
(CRYING) Oh, Louis,
I don't want to marry Lionel!

556
00:37:15,524 --> 00:37:17,859
- Why not?
- He's so dull!

557
00:37:19,445 --> 00:37:22,447
I must admit he exhibits the most
extraordinary capacity for middle age

558
00:37:22,490 --> 00:37:26,034
that I've ever encountered
in a young man of 24.

559
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:29,788
However, it's a bit late in the day
to think of that, isn't it?

560
00:37:29,830 --> 00:37:33,166
I know. That only makes it worse.

561
00:37:33,209 --> 00:37:36,169
- I always told you you should marry me.
- I know.

562
00:37:37,546 --> 00:37:40,006
That makes it worse too.

563
00:37:47,723 --> 00:37:49,516
(PEOPLE CHATTERING)

564
00:37:54,522 --> 00:37:57,691
You look more lovely today
than I've ever seen you.

565
00:38:01,153 --> 00:38:04,364
You're a lucky man, Lionel.
Take my word for it.

566
00:38:09,245 --> 00:38:12,205
LOUIS: I could not helo feeling
that even Sibella's capacity for lying

567
00:38:12,331 --> 00:38:14,874
was going to be taxed to the utmost.

568
00:38:15,001 --> 00:38:17,711
Time had brought me revenge on Lionel.

569
00:38:18,379 --> 00:38:20,338
And as the Italian proverb says,

570
00:38:20,381 --> 00:38:24,551
"Revenge is a dish which people of taste
prefer to eat cold."

571
00:38:27,722 --> 00:38:30,390
The following Saturday I left London
in the middle of the night

572
00:38:30,516 --> 00:38:32,559
and reached Henry's house just before dawn.

573
00:38:32,685 --> 00:38:34,060
(OWL HOOTING)

574
00:38:37,106 --> 00:38:39,524
It took a mere three minutes
to substitute petrol

575
00:38:39,567 --> 00:38:42,360
for the paraffin in the darkroom lamp.

576
00:38:42,737 --> 00:38:45,447
And I then repaired to a meadow
and took a few hours' sleep

577
00:38:45,573 --> 00:38:48,366
while awaiting the hour at which
I could reasonably arrive at the house.

578
00:38:50,703 --> 00:38:53,371
The day dragged by
in an agony of suspense for me.

579
00:38:53,789 --> 00:38:56,750
Henry took photograph after photograph,

580
00:38:56,876 --> 00:39:00,795
but seemed to have no urge whatever
to follow it up with a visit to the darkroom.

581
00:39:04,592 --> 00:39:05,800
Bravo, Edith!

582
00:39:06,218 --> 00:39:10,138
LOUIS: I began to fear
that he had suddenly taken the pledge.

583
00:39:11,140 --> 00:39:14,768
I think I'll just go and develop these
before tea. Care to come?

584
00:39:14,894 --> 00:39:17,604
I would, indeed, but I have a slight headache.
The sun, I think.

585
00:39:17,730 --> 00:39:20,148
And I'm afraid the chemicals
wouldn't improve it.

586
00:39:20,274 --> 00:39:22,734
Mr Mazzini and I will have tea
under the tulip tree.

587
00:39:22,777 --> 00:39:24,944
I've always found that
most beneficial for a headache.

588
00:39:25,446 --> 00:39:27,989
I'm afraid Henry
will think me a poor enthusiast.

589
00:39:28,115 --> 00:39:31,451
I sometimes think that he is too great a one.

590
00:39:31,494 --> 00:39:33,411
In a way, I am to blame for it.

591
00:39:33,829 --> 00:39:36,331
Before we were married, he had few interests.

592
00:39:36,457 --> 00:39:38,416
He used to spend the greater part
of each day at his club.

593
00:39:38,459 --> 00:39:40,085
(SOFT EXPLOSION)

594
00:39:40,127 --> 00:39:41,461
I felt that such a life was unhealthy

595
00:39:41,504 --> 00:39:44,297
and persuaded him to come
and live here in the country.

596
00:39:45,466 --> 00:39:47,133
I hoped
that perhaps he would interest himself

597
00:39:47,176 --> 00:39:50,136
in the welfare of our tenantry, as I do.

598
00:39:50,429 --> 00:39:52,472
But he became interested in photography
on our honeymoon

599
00:39:53,099 --> 00:39:57,268
and since then it has become
the major preoccupation of his life.

600
00:39:58,270 --> 00:40:00,522
- Mr Mazzini...
- Yes?

601
00:40:00,648 --> 00:40:03,191
I hope you will forgive my speaking to you
on a personal matter,

602
00:40:03,859 --> 00:40:06,444
but it worries me that Henry
should spend so much time on his hobby

603
00:40:06,487 --> 00:40:08,655
that he has little left
for any more useful activity.

604
00:40:09,490 --> 00:40:11,616
Am I right to let him go on like this?

605
00:40:11,659 --> 00:40:14,494
LOUIS: I could hardly point out
that Henry now had no time left

606
00:40:14,537 --> 00:40:16,329
for any kind of activity,

607
00:40:16,372 --> 00:40:18,998
so I continued to discuss his future.

608
00:40:19,125 --> 00:40:21,167
He has never shown any wish
for a career in politics?

609
00:40:22,002 --> 00:40:24,629
- None.
- Nor any other ambitions?

610
00:40:24,672 --> 00:40:28,174
One only. To win a prize
at the Salon Photography in Brussels.

611
00:40:29,552 --> 00:40:31,052
What is it?

612
00:40:31,178 --> 00:40:35,014
Oh, they're just burning some leaves
at the bottom of the garden.

613
00:40:35,141 --> 00:40:37,892
But they can't be at this time of year.

614
00:40:40,020 --> 00:40:42,188
- Henry!
- No. You stay here.

615
00:40:42,857 --> 00:40:44,566
LOUIS: Needless to say, I was too late.

616
00:40:44,692 --> 00:40:46,234
(BELL TOLLING)

617
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,529
The funeral service was held
in the village church at Chalfont,

618
00:40:49,655 --> 00:40:52,490
prior to interment in the family vault.

619
00:40:53,868 --> 00:40:56,411
Mrs D'Ascoyne, who had discerned in me

620
00:40:56,537 --> 00:40:59,747
a man of delicate sensibility
and high purpose

621
00:40:59,874 --> 00:41:02,709
asked me to accompany her
on the cross-country journey.

622
00:41:03,544 --> 00:41:05,545
"To everything there is a season

623
00:41:05,588 --> 00:41:09,549
"and a time to every purpose
under the heaven.

624
00:41:10,426 --> 00:41:14,053
"A time to be born, and a time to die."

625
00:41:14,430 --> 00:41:16,848
LOUIS: The occasion was interesting,
in that it provided me

626
00:41:16,891 --> 00:41:20,059
with my first sight
of the D'Ascoynes en masse.

627
00:41:20,895 --> 00:41:23,438
Interesting and somewhat depressing

628
00:41:23,564 --> 00:41:26,733
for it emphasised how far I had yet to travel.

629
00:41:27,193 --> 00:41:29,027
There was the Duke.

630
00:41:32,740 --> 00:41:35,700
There was my employer,
Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne.

631
00:41:37,703 --> 00:41:40,580
There was Admiral Lord Horatio D'Ascoyne.

632
00:41:43,083 --> 00:41:46,252
There was General Lord Rufus D'Ascoyne.

633
00:41:46,378 --> 00:41:48,129
(SNORING)

634
00:41:49,256 --> 00:41:52,133
- There was Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne.
- (SNORING CONTINUES)

635
00:41:52,259 --> 00:41:53,384
(SHUSHING)

636
00:41:56,222 --> 00:41:59,766
And in the pulpit,
talking interminable nonsense

637
00:41:59,892 --> 00:42:01,976
the Reverend Lord Henry D'Ascoyne.

638
00:42:02,102 --> 00:42:03,895
The life cut short

639
00:42:04,647 --> 00:42:09,442
was one rich in achievement and promise

640
00:42:09,902 --> 00:42:12,320
of service to humanity.

641
00:42:12,446 --> 00:42:14,906
LOUIS: The D'Ascoynes
certainly appeared to have accorded

642
00:42:14,949 --> 00:42:17,116
with the tradition of the landed gentry

643
00:42:17,159 --> 00:42:20,453
and sent the fool of the family
into the church.

644
00:42:21,956 --> 00:42:24,457
Well, goodbye, my dear.

645
00:42:25,334 --> 00:42:27,627
- Goodbye.
- No fretting now.

646
00:42:27,670 --> 00:42:30,797
After all, one thing to be said,
we all have to come to it.

647
00:42:31,799 --> 00:42:36,135
Great thing, you know, family vault like ours.
Constant reminder of one's heritage.

648
00:42:36,178 --> 00:42:38,346
Now, take this new cremation nonsense.

649
00:42:38,472 --> 00:42:41,766
Who wants to see his nearest and dearest
put in an incinerator?

650
00:42:41,809 --> 00:42:44,811
I think, sir, Mrs D'Ascoyne should leave.
The wind is turning cold.

651
00:42:44,937 --> 00:42:47,272
As Mrs D'Ascoyne thinks best.

652
00:42:48,857 --> 00:42:51,526
Glad we had Cousin Henry
to take the service.

653
00:42:51,652 --> 00:42:55,154
Boring old ass,
but it keeps the thing in the family.

654
00:42:55,656 --> 00:42:57,657
People getting strange ideas these days.

655
00:42:57,783 --> 00:42:59,826
Had a fellow write to me not so long ago,

656
00:42:59,952 --> 00:43:03,121
wanted to bury his mother here
from Tooting or somewhere.

657
00:43:03,163 --> 00:43:05,999
Start letting strangers in,
the place will be full up.

658
00:43:06,125 --> 00:43:07,875
No room for us, eh?

659
00:43:08,836 --> 00:43:11,504
LOUIS: I privately promised him
that I would make it my business

660
00:43:11,547 --> 00:43:13,881
to see there was room for him.

661
00:43:18,971 --> 00:43:21,973
Uncle Ethelred is not the most tactful of men.

662
00:43:22,016 --> 00:43:24,225
I could gladly have struck him.

663
00:43:24,351 --> 00:43:27,145
Thank you for intervening when you did.

664
00:43:29,690 --> 00:43:31,858
The house will be so empty

665
00:43:32,359 --> 00:43:35,028
and yet he will be in it everywhere.

666
00:43:36,322 --> 00:43:39,365
I find the thought of life there hard to face.

667
00:43:39,408 --> 00:43:41,701
Must you stay there? A new environment...

668
00:43:42,369 --> 00:43:43,911
I must,

669
00:43:44,038 --> 00:43:45,872
for one reason if no other.

670
00:43:45,998 --> 00:43:49,709
They would say I was running away,
that there was truth in all these rumours.

671
00:43:49,835 --> 00:43:52,545
- Rumours?
- In the village.

672
00:43:53,339 --> 00:43:55,173
There's been gossip.

673
00:43:55,716 --> 00:43:58,718
They say that Henry drank in secret.

674
00:44:00,387 --> 00:44:02,347
They even say that
that was the cause of the accident.

675
00:44:03,223 --> 00:44:06,768
I'm sure that Henry would never have
professed one thing and practised another.

676
00:44:08,395 --> 00:44:10,063
I, too, am sure.

677
00:44:11,857 --> 00:44:13,858
Otherwise, I think I could not survive.

678
00:44:14,401 --> 00:44:17,695
We have a long way to go.
Try to sleep a little.

679
00:44:18,906 --> 00:44:20,365
Sleep does not come easily.

680
00:44:20,908 --> 00:44:22,283
Please try.

681
00:44:23,535 --> 00:44:24,869
Allow me.

682
00:44:28,749 --> 00:44:30,541
LOUIS: I was conscious that a new obsession

683
00:44:30,584 --> 00:44:34,754
was about to join the one that I should wear
the coronet of the duke of Chalfont,

684
00:44:35,422 --> 00:44:38,925
that Edith D'Ascoyne should wear that
of the duchess beside me.

685
00:44:39,885 --> 00:44:42,970
Her dignity of bearing
at the worst moments of her grief

686
00:44:43,097 --> 00:44:45,264
had impressed me with the feeling
that here was a woman

687
00:44:45,307 --> 00:44:47,809
whose quality matched her beauty.

688
00:44:48,435 --> 00:44:50,645
I resolved to embark upon her courtship

689
00:44:50,771 --> 00:44:54,440
as soon as a decent period of mourning
should have elapsed.

690
00:44:54,775 --> 00:44:59,112
Sibella? Yes, Sibella was pretty enough
in her suburban way.

691
00:44:59,780 --> 00:45:01,739
And, indeed, there was no reason
why we shouldn't continue

692
00:45:01,782 --> 00:45:03,825
to meet on friendly terms.

693
00:45:03,951 --> 00:45:07,328
But her face would have looked
rather out of place under a coronet.

694
00:45:10,290 --> 00:45:13,292
That, sir, is a list of bills
due for redemption this week.

695
00:45:13,419 --> 00:45:15,753
I've marked in red those asking for renewal.

696
00:45:15,796 --> 00:45:19,924
Aitcheson, yes.
Pole and Carter, I suppose so.

697
00:45:19,967 --> 00:45:22,260
Knollis Limited, oh, no.

698
00:45:22,302 --> 00:45:24,303
Redbank and Holland...

699
00:45:24,346 --> 00:45:26,472
You have a friend there, have you not?

700
00:45:26,598 --> 00:45:29,183
An acquaintance. I know Lionel Holland.

701
00:45:29,309 --> 00:45:31,644
Would you say that he's sound?

702
00:45:32,146 --> 00:45:33,521
I wouldn't say not, sir.

703
00:45:33,647 --> 00:45:35,273
Hmm. Thank you.

704
00:45:40,821 --> 00:45:43,197
- Mazzini.
- Yes, sir?

705
00:45:43,991 --> 00:45:47,118
I've watched your progress here
with great care

706
00:45:47,161 --> 00:45:50,496
and have been gratified to note
that it has fully justified my judgement

707
00:45:50,539 --> 00:45:52,832
in inviting you into the firm.

708
00:45:52,958 --> 00:45:57,378
In view of that, and in order that
you may be able to adopt a style of living

709
00:45:57,504 --> 00:46:00,339
befitting a member of the D'Ascoyne family,

710
00:46:00,466 --> 00:46:03,801
I have decided
to appoint you my private secretary

711
00:46:03,844 --> 00:46:06,846
at a salary of �500 per annum.

712
00:46:07,681 --> 00:46:10,975
- Sir, I cannot begin to...
- Oh, please do not try.

713
00:46:11,018 --> 00:46:14,687
I had intended
that my son should occupy the position.

714
00:46:15,522 --> 00:46:19,484
I can only say that I will try
to make my occupancy of it

715
00:46:19,526 --> 00:46:21,402
worthy of his memory.

716
00:46:25,324 --> 00:46:27,033
LOUIS: I left the Halworths' house

717
00:46:27,159 --> 00:46:29,911
and took a bachelor apartment in St James's.

718
00:46:30,037 --> 00:46:32,705
Clapham no longer held Sibella's presence
to compensate me

719
00:46:32,748 --> 00:46:35,416
for the tedious journey
between the suburbs and the city.

720
00:46:35,542 --> 00:46:36,918
(DOORBELL CHIMING)

721
00:46:37,711 --> 00:46:42,089
Anyhow, it would be vastly more convenient
for her to visit me here.

722
00:46:55,062 --> 00:46:58,606
Now, let me have a look
at the beautiful Mrs Holland.

723
00:46:58,732 --> 00:47:01,901
- No, I think I prefer Miss Halworth.
- So do I.

724
00:47:03,070 --> 00:47:06,405
Louis, it's very wrong of me to visit you here.

725
00:47:06,532 --> 00:47:09,617
- Why?
- A married woman calling on a bachelor?

726
00:47:10,953 --> 00:47:12,787
A dangerous bachelor

727
00:47:13,747 --> 00:47:15,414
in his apartment.

728
00:47:15,541 --> 00:47:17,041
I? Dangerous?

729
00:47:19,753 --> 00:47:22,463
These things only become wrong
when people know about them.

730
00:47:22,589 --> 00:47:25,466
This is a very discreet apartment.
That's why I chose it.

731
00:47:25,592 --> 00:47:28,803
So that young women
could call on you in safety?

732
00:47:30,097 --> 00:47:32,598
So that one young woman could.

733
00:47:33,642 --> 00:47:35,935
How did you know she'd want to?

734
00:47:36,061 --> 00:47:37,311
I hoped.

735
00:47:41,233 --> 00:47:44,235
- How did you enjoy your honeymoon?
- Not at all.

736
00:47:45,946 --> 00:47:47,321
Not at all?

737
00:47:48,323 --> 00:47:49,782
Not at all.

738
00:47:52,077 --> 00:47:54,328
- And how was Italy?
- Oh, impossible!

739
00:47:54,830 --> 00:47:58,082
Every time I wanted to go shopping,
Lionel dragged me off to a church

740
00:47:58,125 --> 00:47:59,917
or picture gallery.

741
00:47:59,960 --> 00:48:03,462
- Said he wanted to improve his mind.
- He has room to do so.

742
00:48:04,131 --> 00:48:07,758
I should reprove you
for saying unkind things about him

743
00:48:07,801 --> 00:48:09,302
but I can't.

744
00:48:10,929 --> 00:48:15,433
Louis, I think I've married
the most boring man in London.

745
00:48:15,475 --> 00:48:17,602
- In England.
- In Europe!

746
00:48:21,315 --> 00:48:24,942
Oh, the Italian men are so handsome,

747
00:48:25,485 --> 00:48:28,988
but I could never get away
from Lionel for a moment.

748
00:48:30,282 --> 00:48:32,992
But I was forgetting, you're Italian.

749
00:48:33,452 --> 00:48:34,619
Half.

750
00:48:40,292 --> 00:48:41,626
Louis...

751
00:48:42,878 --> 00:48:45,671
I can speak frankly to you?

752
00:48:47,466 --> 00:48:49,675
Well, if not to me, to whom?

753
00:48:50,510 --> 00:48:52,136
I shall go mad.

754
00:48:52,638 --> 00:48:55,681
Already when he touches me,
I want to scream.

755
00:49:10,530 --> 00:49:12,198
What am I doing?

756
00:49:14,034 --> 00:49:15,701
You know very well.

757
00:49:15,744 --> 00:49:17,870
You're playing with fire.

758
00:49:18,372 --> 00:49:20,247
At least it warms me.

759
00:49:21,750 --> 00:49:23,167
I must go.

760
00:49:25,379 --> 00:49:27,546
Lionel's dining at home tonight.

761
00:49:27,589 --> 00:49:29,423
Where is Lionel dining tomorrow night?

762
00:49:29,549 --> 00:49:32,051
With some business acquaintances.

763
00:49:32,761 --> 00:49:35,429
And where are you dining tomorrow night?

764
00:49:35,555 --> 00:49:37,056
Here?

765
00:49:37,182 --> 00:49:38,349
Here.

766
00:49:45,190 --> 00:49:47,191
LOUIS: Poor little imprisoned bird.

767
00:49:47,234 --> 00:49:51,237
Well, she was welcome to come
and flutter her wings with me.

768
00:49:51,279 --> 00:49:53,906
I could think of many more
disagreeable ways of killing time

769
00:49:53,949 --> 00:49:55,866
pending the arrival of the moment

770
00:49:55,909 --> 00:49:57,952
when the conventional decencies
would permit me

771
00:49:58,078 --> 00:50:00,454
to make my declaration to Edith.

772
00:50:01,456 --> 00:50:05,084
As to the other undertaking,
I had not forgotten or forgiven

773
00:50:05,127 --> 00:50:07,753
the boredom of the sermon
at young Henry's funeral

774
00:50:08,130 --> 00:50:11,215
and I decided to promote
the Reverend Lord Henry D'Ascoyne

775
00:50:11,258 --> 00:50:12,800
to next place on the list.

776
00:50:13,385 --> 00:50:17,555
I therefore assumed the garb and character
of a colonial bishop

777
00:50:17,597 --> 00:50:22,768
spending his vacation making a collection
of brass rubbings from country churches.

778
00:50:24,938 --> 00:50:26,897
Good evening, my lord.

779
00:50:28,108 --> 00:50:29,608
LOUIS: It was, for a moment,
a shock to be addressed

780
00:50:29,651 --> 00:50:32,778
by my ecclesiastical title,
but I recovered quickly.

781
00:50:32,821 --> 00:50:37,324
Good evening. I was just taking a rubbing
of this most interesting brass.

782
00:50:37,617 --> 00:50:40,661
An ancestress of my dear late wife.

783
00:50:41,455 --> 00:50:43,956
Allow me to introduce myself.

784
00:50:43,999 --> 00:50:47,960
Henry D'Ascoyne, rector of this parish.

785
00:50:48,003 --> 00:50:51,422
Septimus Wilkinson, bishop of Matabeleland.

786
00:50:52,841 --> 00:50:57,428
I was spending my vacation taking a cycling
tour around your beautiful country churches.

787
00:50:57,471 --> 00:51:01,766
- Ah! Have you noticed our clerestory?
- Cle...

788
00:51:04,144 --> 00:51:05,978
Ah, exquisite!

789
00:51:06,104 --> 00:51:08,647
- The corbels are very fine.
- Hmm.

790
00:51:09,483 --> 00:51:13,611
Perhaps Your Lordship would permit me
to show you one or two other things

791
00:51:13,653 --> 00:51:15,321
in which we take a pride.

792
00:51:15,363 --> 00:51:17,490
I should be most interested.

793
00:51:17,616 --> 00:51:20,284
Our most notable features, of course,

794
00:51:20,660 --> 00:51:23,329
are the D'Ascoyne memorials.

795
00:51:23,997 --> 00:51:26,499
Every member of the family

796
00:51:26,958 --> 00:51:30,669
to a cadet branch
of which I have the honour to belong

797
00:51:30,796 --> 00:51:34,507
is buried here in the family vault.

798
00:51:36,051 --> 00:51:40,888
Here you will see
the first duke and his duchess.

799
00:51:41,640 --> 00:51:45,810
The dead watching, as it were,
over the living.

800
00:51:47,229 --> 00:51:50,481
The church is exceptionally endowed also

801
00:51:50,524 --> 00:51:53,901
with items of architectural interest.

802
00:51:55,320 --> 00:51:58,531
You will note that our chantry

803
00:51:58,657 --> 00:52:02,576
displays the crocketed and finialed ogee

804
00:52:02,702 --> 00:52:07,039
which marks it as very early Perpendicular.

805
00:52:08,875 --> 00:52:11,710
The bosses to the pendant are typical.

806
00:52:13,588 --> 00:52:15,548
And I always say

807
00:52:16,424 --> 00:52:19,260
that my west window

808
00:52:19,386 --> 00:52:22,763
has all the exuberance of Chaucer

809
00:52:23,723 --> 00:52:29,228
without, happily, any of
the concomitant crudities of his period.

810
00:52:29,271 --> 00:52:30,563
Hmm.

811
00:52:31,064 --> 00:52:33,232
Now we approach the font.

812
00:52:34,234 --> 00:52:37,361
LOUIS: At last he did as I had hoped
and invited me to dinner.

813
00:52:37,404 --> 00:52:40,948
The Reverend Lord Henry was not
one of those newfangled parsons

814
00:52:41,074 --> 00:52:44,743
who carry the principles of their vocation
uncomfortably into private life.

815
00:52:44,786 --> 00:52:47,371
However, he exhibited a polite interest

816
00:52:47,414 --> 00:52:49,915
in the progress of the Christian faith
in Matabeleland

817
00:52:50,041 --> 00:52:51,917
which I was at some difficulty to satisfy.

818
00:52:52,043 --> 00:52:54,712
The SPCK have provided us

819
00:52:54,754 --> 00:52:57,464
with a large number of copies
of the Good Book

820
00:52:57,591 --> 00:52:59,800
translated into Matabele.

821
00:52:59,926 --> 00:53:03,262
But as none of the natives can read
even their own language...

822
00:53:03,305 --> 00:53:07,266
- You speak Matabele yourself?
- Not as a native.

823
00:53:08,268 --> 00:53:10,644
It would be most interesting

824
00:53:10,770 --> 00:53:13,772
to hear a sample of the language.

825
00:53:14,608 --> 00:53:16,650
I'm afraid my Matabele is a little rusty.

826
00:53:16,902 --> 00:53:19,278
Oh, come, my lord.

827
00:53:21,239 --> 00:53:26,118
Daniel cast into the lions' den, for example.

828
00:53:28,997 --> 00:53:30,289
(SPEAKING GIBBERISH)

829
00:53:37,964 --> 00:53:40,799
It is a colloquial rendering, of course.

830
00:53:41,301 --> 00:53:43,010
Most interesting.

831
00:53:45,180 --> 00:53:47,264
My lord, the port is with you.

832
00:53:47,599 --> 00:53:48,641
Oh.

833
00:53:51,978 --> 00:53:54,980
- How do you find the wine?
- Admirable.

834
00:53:55,649 --> 00:53:58,192
- Courban '69.
- Oh.

835
00:53:58,318 --> 00:54:00,653
No finer year, in my view.

836
00:54:03,448 --> 00:54:07,117
My doctor, though, is of a different opinion.

837
00:54:07,661 --> 00:54:09,662
And what does he favour?

838
00:54:11,331 --> 00:54:12,873
Abstinence.

839
00:54:12,999 --> 00:54:14,833
(LAUGHING)

840
00:54:15,710 --> 00:54:18,003
Would you care for a cigar?

841
00:54:19,214 --> 00:54:20,673
Thank you.

842
00:54:48,201 --> 00:54:49,368
Yes.

843
00:54:51,413 --> 00:54:56,375
He's continually warning me
about the state of my arteries.

844
00:55:01,881 --> 00:55:03,590
But I say to him,

845
00:55:04,551 --> 00:55:07,720
"What possible harm can there be

846
00:55:07,762 --> 00:55:10,180
"in one glass of an evening

847
00:55:12,434 --> 00:55:13,934
"or even two?"

848
00:55:14,394 --> 00:55:16,103
What harm, indeed.

849
00:55:18,064 --> 00:55:21,400
- You do not condemn me then?
- Not in the least.

850
00:55:22,902 --> 00:55:24,528
If I may say so,

851
00:55:25,363 --> 00:55:28,907
without disrespect to my superiors,

852
00:55:29,909 --> 00:55:33,287
your visit has brought me something

853
00:55:33,913 --> 00:55:38,751
which I could not expect
from any churchman in this country.

854
00:56:12,243 --> 00:56:14,787
LOUIS: I surmised, correctly, as it proved

855
00:56:14,913 --> 00:56:18,791
that Lord Henry's doctor would assume
that he had succumbed to a surfeit of port

856
00:56:18,833 --> 00:56:21,293
and would politely ascribe death
to a heart attack.

857
00:56:22,128 --> 00:56:25,172
On my return to London,
I decided to proceed methodically

858
00:56:25,298 --> 00:56:28,425
with the elimination of
the remaining minor obstacles.

859
00:56:28,468 --> 00:56:33,305
Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne was a pioneer
in the campaign for women's suffrage.

860
00:56:33,848 --> 00:56:35,641
(GLASS SHATTERING)

861
00:56:39,646 --> 00:56:42,147
With the inconvenient consequence
that her public appearances

862
00:56:42,273 --> 00:56:46,151
were invariably made under
the watchful eyes of the metropolitan police.

863
00:56:46,277 --> 00:56:48,529
When she was not making
public appearances,

864
00:56:48,655 --> 00:56:51,824
she was in prison
and still more inaccessible.

865
00:56:51,950 --> 00:56:55,327
In fact, before I could learn
of a favourable opportunity,

866
00:56:55,370 --> 00:56:57,871
I had to join the movement myself.

867
00:56:58,373 --> 00:57:00,624
Secret plans had been made for Lady Agatha

868
00:57:00,667 --> 00:57:02,626
to celebrate her latest release from Holloway

869
00:57:02,669 --> 00:57:05,712
by a shower of leaflets over Whitehall
and the West End.

870
00:57:05,839 --> 00:57:07,631
(PEOPLE CLAMOURING)

871
00:57:39,664 --> 00:57:41,331
I shot an arrow in the air,

872
00:57:42,876 --> 00:57:45,586
she fell to Earth in Berkeley Square.

873
00:57:46,754 --> 00:57:50,507
Admiral Lord Horatio D'Ascoyne
presented a more difficult problem.

874
00:57:51,759 --> 00:57:54,219
He scarcely ever set foot ashore

875
00:57:55,430 --> 00:57:59,933
and I was beginning to feel that this task
was beyond even my ingenuity.

876
00:58:02,562 --> 00:58:05,522
When he was conveniently
involved in a naval disaster

877
00:58:05,565 --> 00:58:08,692
which arose from a combination
of natural obstinacy

878
00:58:08,735 --> 00:58:10,861
- and a certain confusion of mind.
- (WIND HOWLING)

879
00:58:10,904 --> 00:58:12,738
Unfortunate in one of his rank.

880
00:58:14,032 --> 00:58:15,741
Bring her to port.

881
00:58:18,411 --> 00:58:21,413
- Surely you mean starboard, sir.
- Port!

882
00:58:21,748 --> 00:58:23,749
(HORN BLARING)

883
00:58:27,921 --> 00:58:29,254
(CRASHING)

884
00:58:30,548 --> 00:58:33,258
LOUIS: Both ships sank almost immediately.

885
00:58:33,301 --> 00:58:36,803
Though, fortunately,
all hands were saved, save one.

886
00:58:38,765 --> 00:58:41,767
Admiral Lord Horatio, obstinate to the last

887
00:58:41,809 --> 00:58:44,561
insisted on going down with his ship.

888
00:58:48,274 --> 00:58:51,610
General Lord Rufus D'Ascoyne,
on the other hand,

889
00:58:51,653 --> 00:58:53,987
who never tired of demonstrating
how he had fought

890
00:58:54,113 --> 00:58:57,074
the most calamitous campaign
of the South African War

891
00:58:57,116 --> 00:58:58,575
was a fairly easy proposition.

892
00:58:58,618 --> 00:59:04,831
At that moment, the concealed enemy
emerged from behind the kopje.

893
00:59:05,458 --> 00:59:10,295
I held our guns' fire until
we could see the whites of their eyes.

894
00:59:10,421 --> 00:59:13,799
Then I gave the order. "Fire!"

895
00:59:15,176 --> 00:59:16,593
Boom, boom, boom.

896
00:59:17,845 --> 00:59:20,806
LOUIS: It seemed appropriate that
he who had lived amidst the cannon's roar

897
00:59:20,932 --> 00:59:22,933
should die explosively.

898
00:59:23,309 --> 00:59:28,313
I therefore concealed in a pot of caviar
a simple but powerful homemade bomb

899
00:59:29,023 --> 00:59:32,776
and through the post,
I sent the caviar to the general.

900
00:59:33,027 --> 00:59:35,696
HORATIO: I pretended
to be deceived by the feint

901
00:59:35,822 --> 00:59:38,031
and sent our horse to meet it.

902
00:59:38,157 --> 00:59:43,120
At that moment, the concealed enemy
emerged from behind the kopje.

903
00:59:43,705 --> 00:59:45,831
I held our guns' fire

904
00:59:45,957 --> 00:59:48,875
till we could see the whites of their eyes.

905
00:59:54,382 --> 00:59:57,718
Used to get a lot of this stuff in the Crimea.

906
00:59:57,844 --> 01:00:00,679
One thing the Russkies do really well.

907
01:00:00,805 --> 01:00:02,347
(EXPLOSION)

908
01:00:04,726 --> 01:00:06,893
LOUIS: Not an atom of him was left.

909
01:00:10,231 --> 01:00:15,319
One could almost believe there was a curse
on our unfortunate family, Mazzini.

910
01:00:15,361 --> 01:00:16,695
Indeed, sir, one could.

911
01:00:16,821 --> 01:00:20,198
I don't know if you realise
how close this series of tragedies

912
01:00:20,241 --> 01:00:22,409
has brought you to the succession.

913
01:00:22,535 --> 01:00:24,244
I had not actually given the matter
any thought, sir.

914
01:00:24,370 --> 01:00:26,204
Then it's time that you did.

915
01:00:26,247 --> 01:00:30,083
Do you not realise that you are
heir presumptive to the dukedom?

916
01:00:30,209 --> 01:00:32,711
That is to say, in the event of
the present duke dying without issue,

917
01:00:32,837 --> 01:00:35,881
I alone intervene between you and the title.

918
01:00:36,341 --> 01:00:38,175
And I am an old man.

919
01:00:38,926 --> 01:00:41,887
I've never really recovered
from the first of these calamities.

920
01:00:42,680 --> 01:00:44,723
You mean I might become Duke of Chalfont?

921
01:00:44,849 --> 01:00:46,767
I mean that you almost certainly will.

922
01:00:48,227 --> 01:00:50,395
In view of that, I feel it would be more fitting

923
01:00:50,521 --> 01:00:53,690
that you should cease to be
an employee here.

924
01:00:53,733 --> 01:00:56,943
- Oh.
- And become instead my partner.

925
01:00:58,363 --> 01:01:00,447
I am most deeply grateful and honoured.

926
01:01:00,573 --> 01:01:04,910
If you'll come round here,
I will make everything very clear to you.

927
01:01:14,128 --> 01:01:19,132
Uh, had she lived, your mother, of course,
would have succeeded before you.

928
01:01:19,676 --> 01:01:21,593
LOUIS: One of my first tasks as partner

929
01:01:21,636 --> 01:01:23,929
was to interview Lionel, who came cap...

930
01:01:24,472 --> 01:01:26,765
Or rather, silk hat in hand.

931
01:01:27,934 --> 01:01:31,353
To save time, I presume you have called
to ask for renewal of your bill?

932
01:01:32,438 --> 01:01:34,773
The fact is, old boy, we sold short

933
01:01:34,857 --> 01:01:37,943
and the market hasn't
dropped as we expected.

934
01:01:38,027 --> 01:01:41,697
I feel entitled to point out
that we here regard our function

935
01:01:41,781 --> 01:01:44,783
as the encouragement
of constructive investment

936
01:01:44,867 --> 01:01:47,786
and not the financing
of mere gambling transactions.

937
01:01:47,870 --> 01:01:49,121
Now...

938
01:01:50,164 --> 01:01:52,457
LOUIS: It would have delighted me
to refuse him.

939
01:01:52,542 --> 01:01:55,210
However, a bankrupt Lionel
could hardly have continued

940
01:01:55,294 --> 01:01:57,838
to support Sibella in her extravagances

941
01:01:57,964 --> 01:02:00,298
and I had no wish to do so myself.

942
01:02:00,341 --> 01:02:04,636
Very well. We will renew
at three and a half percent.

943
01:02:05,054 --> 01:02:07,723
I judged that the time was now ripe
to make a move

944
01:02:07,807 --> 01:02:09,474
in the matter of Edith D'Ascoyne.

945
01:02:09,517 --> 01:02:11,643
It's becoming cold. Shall we go in?

946
01:02:12,645 --> 01:02:15,147
I know why you shivered just now.

947
01:02:15,231 --> 01:02:17,482
It was not because you were cold.

948
01:02:17,525 --> 01:02:18,650
No.

949
01:02:20,027 --> 01:02:22,070
I couldn't help remembering.

950
01:02:22,155 --> 01:02:25,031
I know. But do you try to forget?

951
01:02:26,075 --> 01:02:29,244
- I may sound harsh, but believe me...
- Please.

952
01:02:29,871 --> 01:02:31,246
Not there.

953
01:02:33,583 --> 01:02:36,084
Because it was Henry's chair.

954
01:02:36,169 --> 01:02:38,754
It hasn't been used since that day.

955
01:02:39,255 --> 01:02:41,089
Nothing of his.

956
01:02:41,174 --> 01:02:45,343
Everything is just as he left it,
his writing desk, his clothes.

957
01:02:46,053 --> 01:02:49,014
I cannot bear that it should be otherwise.

958
01:02:50,850 --> 01:02:53,435
You want this house to be a shrine.

959
01:02:53,519 --> 01:02:57,564
You're wrong.
Shrines are not meant to house the living.

960
01:02:58,775 --> 01:03:03,278
I have always respected you,
your principles, your courage,

961
01:03:03,362 --> 01:03:05,781
above any woman I've ever met.

962
01:03:05,865 --> 01:03:09,201
It is your duty to yourself and to others,

963
01:03:09,243 --> 01:03:11,077
to Henry even,

964
01:03:11,204 --> 01:03:14,289
to live again in the present, in the future.

965
01:03:15,374 --> 01:03:16,792
What future is there for me?

966
01:03:23,800 --> 01:03:27,093
I am now going to say
something presumptuous.

967
01:03:27,220 --> 01:03:29,888
You must order me
from your house if you wish.

968
01:03:29,972 --> 01:03:31,556
It is this...

969
01:03:32,266 --> 01:03:36,561
If you should ever feel that
the constant support of a devoted admirer

970
01:03:36,604 --> 01:03:38,980
would be of assistance to you,

971
01:03:39,065 --> 01:03:42,234
I should be most honoured
if you would permit me

972
01:03:42,276 --> 01:03:44,778
to offer you my hand in marriage.

973
01:03:46,614 --> 01:03:48,073
Mr Mazzini...

974
01:03:55,289 --> 01:03:56,957
This is a shock.

975
01:03:58,960 --> 01:04:00,669
I'm most touched.

976
01:04:01,629 --> 01:04:03,922
Most grateful,

977
01:04:04,006 --> 01:04:07,926
but I could not consider
even the possibility of remarrying.

978
01:04:08,970 --> 01:04:12,305
I have spoken too boldly and too soon.

979
01:04:14,016 --> 01:04:17,978
Please regard what I have said merely
as something to draw upon

980
01:04:18,104 --> 01:04:19,771
should you ever feel so inclined.

981
01:04:20,481 --> 01:04:23,108
LOUIS: Sibella was waiting for me
when I got back.

982
01:04:23,150 --> 01:04:26,111
I was pleased to see her,
for while I never admired Edith

983
01:04:26,195 --> 01:04:28,280
as much as when I was with Sibella,

984
01:04:28,322 --> 01:04:31,283
I never longed for Sibella
as much as when I was with Edith.

985
01:04:31,325 --> 01:04:32,492
(DOOR OPENS)

986
01:04:33,661 --> 01:04:36,454
I'm afraid I'm late. Have you been bored?

987
01:04:36,539 --> 01:04:37,706
No.

988
01:04:38,207 --> 01:04:41,126
I've been looking into the fire and thinking.

989
01:04:41,168 --> 01:04:43,211
- What about?
- Oh.

990
01:04:43,296 --> 01:04:46,673
How we used to roast chestnuts
round the other fire

991
01:04:46,799 --> 01:04:49,301
and what a lot has happened since.

992
01:04:49,385 --> 01:04:50,802
Such as?

993
01:04:50,845 --> 01:04:54,973
How you told me not to marry Lionel
because you might be a duke one day

994
01:04:55,016 --> 01:04:57,142
and how I laughed at you.

995
01:04:57,852 --> 01:04:59,978
And how I married Lionel

996
01:05:00,479 --> 01:05:03,148
and now you very nearly are a duke.

997
01:05:04,567 --> 01:05:06,401
We're much better off as we are, you and I.

998
01:05:06,485 --> 01:05:11,156
It's all very well for you to say that.
You're not married to Lionel.

999
01:05:11,198 --> 01:05:13,909
We see each other when we want to.

1000
01:05:13,993 --> 01:05:15,994
We're not obliged to see each other
when we don't want to.

1001
01:05:16,037 --> 01:05:19,205
We don't see each other as often as I'd like to.

1002
01:05:19,332 --> 01:05:22,167
- You've been away the whole weekend.
- I had to go.

1003
01:05:22,209 --> 01:05:24,586
- Where?
- To see Mrs D'Ascoyne,

1004
01:05:24,670 --> 01:05:27,422
the widow of that cousin of mine
who was killed.

1005
01:05:27,506 --> 01:05:30,342
All your cousins seem to get killed.

1006
01:05:30,384 --> 01:05:34,554
I really wouldn't be in the least surprised
if you'd murdered them all.

1007
01:05:34,680 --> 01:05:36,890
- Oh.
- How clumsy of me.

1008
01:05:49,028 --> 01:05:52,447
- Whatever made you say that?
- Just silliness.

1009
01:05:53,282 --> 01:05:56,618
Well, if you promise not to tell anyone,
I'll let you in to my guilty secret.

1010
01:05:56,702 --> 01:05:58,036
I did murder them all.

1011
01:05:58,120 --> 01:05:59,412
(CHUCKLES)

1012
01:05:59,538 --> 01:06:02,082
I've suspected it for a long time.

1013
01:06:03,209 --> 01:06:05,377
- What's she like?
- Who?

1014
01:06:05,419 --> 01:06:09,589
- Mrs D'Ascoyne.
- Oh, she's tall, slender...

1015
01:06:10,132 --> 01:06:11,466
Beautiful?

1016
01:06:11,550 --> 01:06:13,468
Yes, I suppose some people
would call her beautiful.

1017
01:06:13,552 --> 01:06:15,053
Would you?

1018
01:06:15,096 --> 01:06:18,431
I suppose so.
I never really thought about that.

1019
01:06:18,557 --> 01:06:21,643
What would you say
if she asked you about me?

1020
01:06:30,319 --> 01:06:34,114
I'd say that you were
a perfect combination of imperfections.

1021
01:06:34,240 --> 01:06:37,826
I'd say that your nose
was just a little too short,

1022
01:06:37,910 --> 01:06:40,412
your mouth just a little too wide,

1023
01:06:41,080 --> 01:06:43,581
but that yours was a face
that a man could see in his dreams

1024
01:06:43,666 --> 01:06:45,792
for the whole of his life.

1025
01:06:46,460 --> 01:06:49,295
I'd say that you were vain, selfish,

1026
01:06:50,172 --> 01:06:52,757
cruel, deceitful.

1027
01:06:54,593 --> 01:06:56,970
I'd say that you were adorable.

1028
01:06:57,763 --> 01:07:00,598
I'd say that you were Sibella.

1029
01:07:01,934 --> 01:07:04,019
What a pretty speech.

1030
01:07:04,103 --> 01:07:05,478
I mean it.

1031
01:07:06,605 --> 01:07:08,857
Come and say it to me again.

1032
01:07:13,988 --> 01:07:16,614
I'd say your nose was just a little too short,

1033
01:07:16,699 --> 01:07:21,161
and your mouth, yes,
your mouth just a little too wide.

1034
01:07:29,378 --> 01:07:31,796
LOUIS: Shortly afterwards,
my employer had a stroke.

1035
01:07:32,298 --> 01:07:34,007
There was little that could be done

1036
01:07:34,133 --> 01:07:37,302
and the doctor gave him a month,
at the most, to live.

1037
01:07:37,344 --> 01:07:39,971
I was glad, after all his kindness to me

1038
01:07:40,056 --> 01:07:42,515
that I should not have to kill the old man.

1039
01:07:42,641 --> 01:07:45,977
Soon the only obstacle
between me and my inheritance

1040
01:07:46,020 --> 01:07:47,812
would be the Duke himself.

1041
01:07:48,189 --> 01:07:50,482
I could lay no plan for disposing of him

1042
01:07:50,566 --> 01:07:54,486
as the life he led within those great
stone walls was a closed book to me.

1043
01:07:54,528 --> 01:07:57,739
I was gloomily examining the problem
for the hundredth time

1044
01:07:57,823 --> 01:08:01,367
as I awaited one day the expected arrival
of Sibella at my apartments.

1045
01:08:01,494 --> 01:08:02,994
(DOORBELL CHIMING)

1046
01:08:08,834 --> 01:08:12,003
- Good afternoon, Mr Mazzini.
- Mrs D'Ascoyne.

1047
01:08:12,505 --> 01:08:13,922
I was passing through St James's

1048
01:08:14,006 --> 01:08:17,675
and thought I would take the opportunity
to call on you.

1049
01:08:21,013 --> 01:08:22,847
Was that wise? Discreet, I mean?

1050
01:08:23,265 --> 01:08:26,684
There are some conventions which must be
governed by individual circumstance.

1051
01:08:26,727 --> 01:08:29,729
Surely it is safe for a woman
to visit a man of your reputation.

1052
01:08:29,855 --> 01:08:31,689
It is of your reputation that I'm thinking.

1053
01:08:31,774 --> 01:08:35,276
Without being inhospitable, I would be
happier if your visit were not a long one.

1054
01:08:35,361 --> 01:08:38,238
I appreciate the scrupulousness
of your motives.

1055
01:08:38,364 --> 01:08:41,032
I have, anyhow,
only one important matter to speak of.

1056
01:08:41,075 --> 01:08:42,242
That is?

1057
01:08:42,368 --> 01:08:46,037
I have thought a great deal about
what you said at our last meeting

1058
01:08:46,122 --> 01:08:49,749
and I have tried to think
what Henry's wishes would be.

1059
01:08:50,042 --> 01:08:52,377
I remember he said to me once,

1060
01:08:53,087 --> 01:08:56,131
"You have too much good in you, Edith,
for one man.

1061
01:08:56,215 --> 01:08:58,216
"I sometimes wish
that others could have a share of it."

1062
01:09:01,428 --> 01:09:03,638
I have reconsidered the offer you made to me.

1063
01:09:03,722 --> 01:09:06,391
Thank you again for it, and accept it gladly.

1064
01:09:07,560 --> 01:09:09,394
You rob me of words.

1065
01:09:10,062 --> 01:09:13,648
I think, however, we should make
no announcement for three months, at least.

1066
01:09:14,108 --> 01:09:15,733
As you think best.

1067
01:09:15,818 --> 01:09:17,735
In these new circumstances

1068
01:09:17,778 --> 01:09:20,572
I think it more than ever desirable
that your unconventional,

1069
01:09:20,656 --> 01:09:23,241
though in its purpose delightful visit
should be cut short.

1070
01:09:23,742 --> 01:09:28,621
If your attention as a husband is equal
of your consideration as a friend,

1071
01:09:28,747 --> 01:09:31,749
I shall have made a most fortunate decision.

1072
01:09:38,924 --> 01:09:41,176
Do you not think, though,
that perhaps Uncle Ethelred,

1073
01:09:41,260 --> 01:09:44,429
as head of the family,
should be told at once?

1074
01:09:44,930 --> 01:09:47,807
Perhaps so. Yes, I'll write to him.

1075
01:09:47,933 --> 01:09:49,934
Goodbye, Louis.

1076
01:09:50,019 --> 01:09:51,936
Goodbye, Edith.

1077
01:09:53,606 --> 01:09:56,858
You leave behind you
the happiest man in London.

1078
01:10:04,950 --> 01:10:06,326
LOUIS: This was not a piece of news

1079
01:10:06,452 --> 01:10:09,829
which I was looking forward
to breaking to Sibella.

1080
01:10:09,955 --> 01:10:11,789
She had no rights in the matter,

1081
01:10:11,832 --> 01:10:15,460
but women have a disconcerting ability
to make scenes out of nothing

1082
01:10:15,502 --> 01:10:19,464
and to prove themselves injured
when they themselves are at fault.

1083
01:10:19,548 --> 01:10:21,132
(DOORBELL CHIMING)

1084
01:10:21,175 --> 01:10:25,303
Anyhow, I had three months' grace
before I need face that storm.

1085
01:10:36,315 --> 01:10:39,234
Have you taken to using attar of roses?

1086
01:10:39,318 --> 01:10:42,362
- No. Why?
- Thought I could smell it.

1087
01:10:43,572 --> 01:10:47,075
I met such a beautiful woman
on the stairs just now.

1088
01:10:47,993 --> 01:10:49,494
I expect that would be Mrs D'Ascoyne.

1089
01:10:49,578 --> 01:10:51,704
- What was she doing here?
- She called in to see me.

1090
01:10:51,830 --> 01:10:54,707
- What about?
- Business. Family business.

1091
01:10:54,833 --> 01:10:57,335
Let me get you a glass of sherry.

1092
01:11:01,006 --> 01:11:04,008
LOUIS: A day or so later,
I received a letter from Lionel.

1093
01:11:04,051 --> 01:11:08,179
He requested an interview with me
at his house on a matter of some delicacy.

1094
01:11:08,264 --> 01:11:11,391
I was somewhat perturbed,
for nine times out of 10

1095
01:11:11,517 --> 01:11:14,143
what is referred to
as a matter of some delicacy

1096
01:11:14,228 --> 01:11:17,480
is, in point of fact, one of extreme indelicacy.

1097
01:11:17,773 --> 01:11:21,442
Two days later,
I made the tedious journey to Bayswater.

1098
01:11:22,236 --> 01:11:25,446
It was typical of Lionel that he should
live on the wrong side of the park.

1099
01:11:25,531 --> 01:11:27,824
(SLURRING) Hello, old boy. Have a drink.

1100
01:11:28,701 --> 01:11:31,494
No, thank you. Never during the day.

1101
01:11:31,578 --> 01:11:34,831
You don't mind if I do? Keep out the cold.

1102
01:11:35,374 --> 01:11:37,709
I was about to remark
on the warmth of the day.

1103
01:11:37,793 --> 01:11:40,420
- Just a joke, old boy.
- Ah, yes.

1104
01:11:41,005 --> 01:11:44,757
- Sit down, old boy.
- No, thank you. I would rather stand.

1105
01:11:47,136 --> 01:11:50,763
A warm day, isn't it?
For the time of the year, I mean.

1106
01:11:50,848 --> 01:11:54,434
Distinctly. It's also a very busy day.

1107
01:11:54,518 --> 01:11:56,811
May we proceed to the matter
about which you wished to see me?

1108
01:11:56,895 --> 01:12:00,356
Right. A matter of some delicacy,
actually, old boy.

1109
01:12:02,151 --> 01:12:05,403
But I said to myself,
"Louis is a sport and a man of the world.

1110
01:12:05,946 --> 01:12:08,656
- "Always been a sport."
- Thank you.

1111
01:12:08,741 --> 01:12:13,745
Always admired the sporting way in which
you took to Sibella marrying me and not you.

1112
01:12:13,829 --> 01:12:15,872
Some fellows would have
taken it very differently.

1113
01:12:16,749 --> 01:12:18,875
But "May the best man win," you said.

1114
01:12:19,376 --> 01:12:21,836
And when I won,
you behaved like a gentleman.

1115
01:12:21,920 --> 01:12:26,341
So I thought as you being keen on Sibella
at one time

1116
01:12:26,800 --> 01:12:31,262
and you and I are old friends,
I... I'd ask you to help us.

1117
01:12:31,347 --> 01:12:32,513
Help you?

1118
01:12:32,598 --> 01:12:35,350
I told you some time back
business hasn't been going so well.

1119
01:12:36,352 --> 01:12:39,479
Since then, it's gone worse. I'm bankrupt.

1120
01:12:40,147 --> 01:12:44,359
So I say to myself,
"Why not talk to my old pal, Louis Mazzini

1121
01:12:45,152 --> 01:12:49,864
"who we used to have such jolly times with
round the old nursery fire

1122
01:12:50,407 --> 01:12:52,033
"roasting chestnuts."

1123
01:12:52,117 --> 01:12:54,202
I'm afraid your memory is deceiving you.

1124
01:12:54,286 --> 01:12:58,873
By no stretch of imagination could you and I
be described as ever having been "pals".

1125
01:12:58,957 --> 01:13:01,501
If I remember correctly,
we detested each other cordially

1126
01:13:01,585 --> 01:13:02,752
from the first day we met,

1127
01:13:02,836 --> 01:13:05,338
with a detestation
which increased with our years.

1128
01:13:05,422 --> 01:13:09,050
Always thought of you as a pal.
Always have done.

1129
01:13:09,843 --> 01:13:11,135
That's why I said to myself...

1130
01:13:11,220 --> 01:13:13,679
It's only fair to warn you
that any further expense of breath

1131
01:13:13,764 --> 01:13:15,681
on this subject would be a waste.

1132
01:13:16,850 --> 01:13:18,851
You know what you're doing?

1133
01:13:18,936 --> 01:13:21,896
- Condemning me to death.
- What do you mean?

1134
01:13:21,980 --> 01:13:25,525
Only one way out for me,
do away with myself.

1135
01:13:26,026 --> 01:13:28,444
If you knew how absurd
these histrionics sounded...

1136
01:13:28,529 --> 01:13:31,989
I'm insured. At least the little woman
will be provided for.

1137
01:13:32,074 --> 01:13:35,410
- Oh, don't be ridiculous.
- Louis, I appeal to you.

1138
01:13:35,786 --> 01:13:39,705
Not for my sake,
but for the sake of the little woman.

1139
01:13:39,790 --> 01:13:42,125
Please rise from that absurd position.

1140
01:13:42,209 --> 01:13:44,043
(SNIFFLING)

1141
01:13:57,391 --> 01:14:00,601
All I can say is
I think you're a cad.

1142
01:14:01,145 --> 01:14:02,687
A selfish cad.

1143
01:14:04,940 --> 01:14:07,275
Let me remind you
of a little not-so-ancient history.

1144
01:14:08,026 --> 01:14:10,862
When I was a draper's assistant and you
a rich father's son,

1145
01:14:10,946 --> 01:14:12,530
you showed me no kindness.

1146
01:14:12,614 --> 01:14:16,284
Now our positions are reversed,
and you come whining to me for favours.

1147
01:14:16,368 --> 01:14:19,203
Draper's assistant. That's right.

1148
01:14:19,288 --> 01:14:21,747
Rotten little counterjumper. That's all you are.

1149
01:14:22,708 --> 01:14:25,084
Very high and mighty now

1150
01:14:25,169 --> 01:14:28,379
but your mother married
an Italian organ-grinder.

1151
01:14:31,341 --> 01:14:32,717
- Stand up.
- Huh?

1152
01:14:32,801 --> 01:14:34,760
I said stand up.

1153
01:14:36,138 --> 01:14:39,599
I will not tolerate hearing
my mother's name on your coarse tongue.

1154
01:14:47,774 --> 01:14:51,360
If you take my advice, you'll go
and put your head under a cold tap.

1155
01:14:51,445 --> 01:14:55,114
I refuse to demean myself
by fighting with a drunken oaf.

1156
01:15:07,211 --> 01:15:10,296
There seemed no point
in prolonging this vulgar brawl

1157
01:15:10,380 --> 01:15:12,507
so I returned to my apartment.

1158
01:15:19,681 --> 01:15:22,099
I took a bath and decided to relax
for half an hour

1159
01:15:22,184 --> 01:15:24,477
and efface this disagreeable scene
from my memory.

1160
01:15:24,561 --> 01:15:26,354
(DOORBELL CHIMING)

1161
01:15:26,897 --> 01:15:28,856
I was not allowed to relax for long.

1162
01:15:34,530 --> 01:15:35,947
Sibella.

1163
01:15:39,117 --> 01:15:42,620
Louis, I'm sorry to worry you
when you must be so busy

1164
01:15:42,704 --> 01:15:44,830
but I have a piece
of important news.

1165
01:15:45,415 --> 01:15:46,541
Bad news.

1166
01:15:47,125 --> 01:15:49,126
(CRYING) I thought
you ought to know it at once.

1167
01:15:56,760 --> 01:15:58,553
Lionel has found out about us.

1168
01:15:59,972 --> 01:16:02,139
About me coming here.

1169
01:16:02,224 --> 01:16:03,933
- Really?
- Yes.

1170
01:16:04,017 --> 01:16:05,059
Oh.

1171
01:16:06,395 --> 01:16:10,022
I had the most dreadful scene
with him last night.

1172
01:16:11,108 --> 01:16:14,777
Well, I suppose even Lionel isn't
stupid enough to be deceived forever.

1173
01:16:14,861 --> 01:16:17,196
You won't take it so calmly
when you hear.

1174
01:16:18,490 --> 01:16:20,741
He's going to start
divorce proceedings.

1175
01:16:20,826 --> 01:16:22,868
How very unsophisticated of him.

1176
01:16:24,621 --> 01:16:28,958
There's only one possible
way out that I can see.

1177
01:16:30,460 --> 01:16:33,963
- And that is?
- Lionel is still in love with me.

1178
01:16:34,798 --> 01:16:37,174
My happiness
is all he cares about.

1179
01:16:37,884 --> 01:16:40,970
He might do the gentlemanly thing
and let me divorce him.

1180
01:16:41,972 --> 01:16:43,055
If?

1181
01:16:44,600 --> 01:16:47,143
If I were in a position to explain to him

1182
01:16:47,227 --> 01:16:50,187
that otherwise he will be jeopardizing
the social position

1183
01:16:50,272 --> 01:16:52,607
not only of the future duke,

1184
01:16:52,691 --> 01:16:55,359
but also the future duchess of Chalfont.

1185
01:16:57,529 --> 01:16:58,738
I see.

1186
01:17:05,370 --> 01:17:08,623
You're a clever little thing, Sibella,
but not quite clever enough.

1187
01:17:08,707 --> 01:17:10,041
What do you mean?

1188
01:17:10,125 --> 01:17:12,668
I mean that not only do I know
that you're blackmailing me,

1189
01:17:12,753 --> 01:17:14,962
an ugly word,
but the only appropriate one,

1190
01:17:15,047 --> 01:17:17,632
but I also know
that you're bluffing me.

1191
01:17:17,716 --> 01:17:19,759
Call my bluff and see.

1192
01:17:19,843 --> 01:17:21,177
I will.

1193
01:17:25,265 --> 01:17:26,974
Let me explain.

1194
01:17:27,059 --> 01:17:29,602
It must have seemed to you
that you hold a very strong hand.

1195
01:17:29,686 --> 01:17:32,063
But... A very important "but",

1196
01:17:32,147 --> 01:17:36,484
it so happens that I hold a card which
you did not even know to be in the pack.

1197
01:17:36,568 --> 01:17:37,860
Who's bluffing now?

1198
01:17:37,944 --> 01:17:41,113
It so happens that I was with Lionel
less than an hour ago.

1199
01:17:41,198 --> 01:17:44,617
And it was transparently clear
from his demeanour and conversation

1200
01:17:44,701 --> 01:17:48,162
that he had not the faintest suspicion
that you and I had any relationship

1201
01:17:48,246 --> 01:17:50,998
other than that of,
as he would probably put it,

1202
01:17:51,458 --> 01:17:55,586
old pals who used to roast chestnuts
together round the jolly old nursery fire.

1203
01:17:57,589 --> 01:18:00,800
So, while thanking you
for the honour that you've done me,

1204
01:18:00,884 --> 01:18:03,719
I must decline your offer
because I have other arrangements

1205
01:18:03,804 --> 01:18:05,596
which make it impossible for me
to accept it.

1206
01:18:05,681 --> 01:18:07,139
Namely?

1207
01:18:07,224 --> 01:18:10,601
I'm shortly going to announce
my engagement to Mrs D'Ascoyne.

1208
01:18:19,528 --> 01:18:22,571
May I say that I think
you've behaved despicably?

1209
01:18:25,117 --> 01:18:29,578
Has it ever occurred to you, Sibella,
that we serve each other right, you and I?

1210
01:18:34,710 --> 01:18:38,504
Would it be asking too much of your manners
to escort me to the door?

1211
01:18:45,929 --> 01:18:48,764
LOUIS: I had suspected
that to confide our secret to the Duke

1212
01:18:48,849 --> 01:18:52,017
might be an adroit manoeuvre,
and I was proved correct

1213
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.

1214
01:18:57,816 --> 01:19:01,652
I must confess that I could not suppress
an agreeable sensation of triumph

1215
01:19:01,737 --> 01:19:03,904
as I approached
the castle gateway

1216
01:19:03,989 --> 01:19:07,366
in circumstances so different
from those in which I had last done so.

1217
01:19:08,326 --> 01:19:09,994
It was just an informal
little house party.

1218
01:19:11,788 --> 01:19:15,750
Our fellow guests were Lady Redpole
and her daughter Maud

1219
01:19:15,834 --> 01:19:19,128
who most suitably resembled
nothing so much as a red poll cow

1220
01:19:19,212 --> 01:19:21,172
and had little more
conversational ability.

1221
01:19:21,256 --> 01:19:24,258
- Did you go to the opera this season?
- No.

1222
01:19:27,512 --> 01:19:30,931
In the afternoon,
Ethelred invited me to inspect the castle.

1223
01:19:31,016 --> 01:19:33,225
It was pleasant to stand
on the battlements

1224
01:19:33,310 --> 01:19:36,604
and know that the acres
which stretched as far as the eye could see

1225
01:19:36,688 --> 01:19:38,522
would soon be mine.

1226
01:19:38,940 --> 01:19:42,985
And it amused me to cover much the same
ground as that of my sixpenny tour.

1227
01:19:44,112 --> 01:19:46,572
I had never been in a building
so lavishly equipped

1228
01:19:46,656 --> 01:19:48,991
with the instruments
of violent death.

1229
01:19:49,075 --> 01:19:50,993
Feel the weight of that.

1230
01:19:51,077 --> 01:19:53,621
Our ancestors must have
been fine men, Louis.

1231
01:19:56,666 --> 01:19:58,584
They seemed, however, ill-adapted

1232
01:19:58,668 --> 01:20:01,587
to the discreet requirements
of 20th-century homicide.

1233
01:20:02,672 --> 01:20:07,802
And the end of the day found my host
still intact and myself still without a plan.

1234
01:20:14,768 --> 01:20:17,061
Beautiful woman, Edith.

1235
01:20:17,145 --> 01:20:18,854
You're a lucky fellow, Louis.

1236
01:20:18,939 --> 01:20:21,148
I never cease to be conscious of that.

1237
01:20:21,525 --> 01:20:23,567
- Thank you.
- What do you think of Maud?

1238
01:20:24,069 --> 01:20:25,528
A charming girl,

1239
01:20:25,612 --> 01:20:28,906
though perhaps at times her conversation
is a little lacking in sparkle.

1240
01:20:28,990 --> 01:20:31,367
Dullest woman I ever met in my life.

1241
01:20:33,829 --> 01:20:35,621
Plain too.

1242
01:20:36,248 --> 01:20:38,374
But good breeding stock.

1243
01:20:40,961 --> 01:20:43,254
Good breeding stock, the Redpoles.

1244
01:20:43,964 --> 01:20:46,173
And they litter a very high proportion of boys.

1245
01:20:48,552 --> 01:20:50,427
Do I gather you to mean...

1246
01:20:50,512 --> 01:20:55,558
Spoke to old Lady Redpole this afternoon.
Only too glad to get the girl off her hands.

1247
01:20:56,142 --> 01:20:57,518
My congratulations.

1248
01:20:59,521 --> 01:21:01,605
Duty to the family, really.

1249
01:21:02,232 --> 01:21:04,483
And when does the union take place?

1250
01:21:04,568 --> 01:21:07,194
Very soon.
I'm not growing any younger.

1251
01:21:07,279 --> 01:21:11,156
Might not get a son the first time.
Quiet wedding, I thought.

1252
01:21:11,241 --> 01:21:13,659
Maud's hardly the type for St Margaret's.

1253
01:21:14,494 --> 01:21:18,497
We shall honeymoon on the Riviera
and then go on to Italy afterwards.

1254
01:21:18,582 --> 01:21:21,208
No sense inflicting her on one's friends.

1255
01:21:23,003 --> 01:21:26,046
When she's got a family,
that'll keep her out of the way.

1256
01:21:27,966 --> 01:21:30,926
LOUIS: This news threw me
into such distress of mind

1257
01:21:31,011 --> 01:21:32,803
that had I had poison
in my possession

1258
01:21:32,888 --> 01:21:36,056
I would probably have administered it
to Ethelred there and then

1259
01:21:36,141 --> 01:21:38,517
and chanced the consequent inquiries.

1260
01:21:40,103 --> 01:21:43,856
One thing was clear,
If I did not succeed in disposing of him

1261
01:21:43,940 --> 01:21:46,358
during this present visit
to the castle

1262
01:21:46,443 --> 01:21:49,403
I was likely to see the ruin
of my whole campaign.

1263
01:21:52,616 --> 01:21:55,451
My best wishes
for a successful outcome.

1264
01:21:57,495 --> 01:21:59,747
The next morning
I went out shooting with Ethelred

1265
01:21:59,831 --> 01:22:01,749
or rather,
to watch Ethelred shooting

1266
01:22:01,833 --> 01:22:05,628
for my principles will not allow me
to take a direct part in blood sports.

1267
01:22:05,712 --> 01:22:08,422
- Been round the traps this morning, Hoskins?
- Not yet, Your Grace.

1268
01:22:08,506 --> 01:22:11,133
Sounds as if we've bagged one there.

1269
01:22:11,217 --> 01:22:16,347
Ah. Been losing so much game lately,
we've started setting the mantraps again.

1270
01:22:25,106 --> 01:22:29,443
Hoskins is now going to thrash you.
Then he'll let you go.

1271
01:22:29,527 --> 01:22:32,696
Let this be a lesson to you
not to poach on my land.

1272
01:22:37,327 --> 01:22:39,078
(BEATING)

1273
01:22:43,583 --> 01:22:45,000
That'll do.

1274
01:22:54,094 --> 01:22:57,304
Keep moving them around, Hoskins,
or they'll tell each other where they are.

1275
01:22:57,389 --> 01:22:59,014
Yes, Your Grace.

1276
01:23:00,809 --> 01:23:03,102
- I thought mantraps were illegal.
- They are.

1277
01:23:03,812 --> 01:23:05,104
What happens if he tells the police?

1278
01:23:05,188 --> 01:23:08,774
He comes up before the bench for poaching,
gets six months in jail.

1279
01:23:08,858 --> 01:23:12,653
If he keeps his mouth shut,
he just gets a few days in bed.

1280
01:23:13,238 --> 01:23:14,989
Which would you choose?

1281
01:23:20,245 --> 01:23:23,706
Only way to deal with these ruffians,
I assure you.

1282
01:23:23,790 --> 01:23:28,002
Oh. I must have dropped my cigarette case
back there. I'll catch you up.

1283
01:23:45,562 --> 01:23:47,229
- Find it?
- Yes, thanks.

1284
01:23:47,313 --> 01:23:50,899
Might have another walk round this afternoon,
if you feel like it.

1285
01:23:51,860 --> 01:23:53,485
That would be most pleasant.

1286
01:23:53,570 --> 01:23:58,073
LOUIS: After luncheon we went out
to massacre a few more unfortunate birds.

1287
01:23:59,075 --> 01:24:01,076
- Listen.
- What is it?

1288
01:24:01,161 --> 01:24:03,954
I thought I heard something,
like someone running through the bracken.

1289
01:24:04,039 --> 01:24:06,331
Another poaching ruffian! Come on!

1290
01:24:11,171 --> 01:24:13,464
There was someone here. Look.

1291
01:24:15,175 --> 01:24:16,800
- (MANTRAP CLOSING)
- Blast!

1292
01:24:16,885 --> 01:24:19,762
Louis, get me out of this. Hurry up, man.

1293
01:24:23,975 --> 01:24:26,477
- Have you gone mad?
- Be quiet, Ethelred.

1294
01:24:27,103 --> 01:24:29,271
I want to talk to you for a minute.

1295
01:24:29,355 --> 01:24:32,441
If you make a noise,
I shall blow your head off at once.

1296
01:24:34,319 --> 01:24:36,361
By the time anyone has heard the shot

1297
01:24:36,446 --> 01:24:39,907
I shall be running back toward the castle,
shouting for help.

1298
01:24:40,950 --> 01:24:43,327
I shall say that you stepped on the trap

1299
01:24:43,953 --> 01:24:46,872
and that your gun went off
accidentally as it fell.

1300
01:24:46,956 --> 01:24:48,082
So be quiet.

1301
01:24:49,542 --> 01:24:52,044
To spare you as much pain as possible

1302
01:24:52,504 --> 01:24:53,587
I'll be brief.

1303
01:24:58,384 --> 01:25:00,844
When I've finished, I shall kill you.

1304
01:25:02,555 --> 01:25:04,932
You'll be the sixth D'Ascoyne that I've killed.

1305
01:25:05,016 --> 01:25:06,391
You want to know why?

1306
01:25:07,852 --> 01:25:10,729
In return for what
the D'Ascoynes did to my mother.

1307
01:25:11,648 --> 01:25:16,902
Because she married for love
instead of for rank or money or land,

1308
01:25:17,779 --> 01:25:21,115
they condemned her to a life
of poverty and slavery

1309
01:25:21,199 --> 01:25:23,534
in a world with which
they had not equipped her to deal.

1310
01:25:23,618 --> 01:25:26,662
You yourself refused to grant
her dying wish

1311
01:25:26,746 --> 01:25:28,831
which was to be buried here at Chalfont.

1312
01:25:29,332 --> 01:25:32,793
When I saw her poor little coffin
slide underground,

1313
01:25:33,378 --> 01:25:36,213
saw her exiled in death
as she'd been in life,

1314
01:25:37,382 --> 01:25:41,051
I swore to have my revenge
on your intolerable pride.

1315
01:25:43,221 --> 01:25:47,891
That revenge
I am just about to complete.

1316
01:25:50,854 --> 01:25:52,980
It's clear that you are insane.

1317
01:25:53,731 --> 01:25:54,982
Give me that gun at once.

1318
01:25:55,608 --> 01:25:56,900
No.

1319
01:25:59,237 --> 01:26:04,199
From here, I think, the wound should look
consistent with the story that I shall tell.

1320
01:26:07,954 --> 01:26:09,913
(BIRDS SQUAWKING)

1321
01:26:13,585 --> 01:26:18,672
Help!

1322
01:26:19,048 --> 01:26:20,090
(CHURCH BELLS TOLLING)

1323
01:26:20,133 --> 01:26:23,302
LOUIS: And so Ethelred,
Eighth Duke of Chalfont,

1324
01:26:23,595 --> 01:26:26,388
duly came to his place in the family vault.

1325
01:26:31,060 --> 01:26:33,520
There were few D'Ascoynes
left to mourn him.

1326
01:26:33,605 --> 01:26:37,649
My employer, who was Ninth Duke of Chalfont
for the shortest possible period,

1327
01:26:37,734 --> 01:26:41,236
having expired of shock on hearing
that he had succeeded to the title.

1328
01:26:43,531 --> 01:26:48,035
And so, I became
the 10th Duke of Chalfont.

1329
01:26:51,623 --> 01:26:55,042
Fortunately, the Ninth Duke
had found time before he expired

1330
01:26:55,126 --> 01:26:58,503
to make a will bequeathing to me
his interests in the business.

1331
01:27:01,341 --> 01:27:02,925
You may remove that.

1332
01:27:11,267 --> 01:27:14,686
A day or two later,
an affecting little feudal ceremony took place

1333
01:27:14,771 --> 01:27:16,521
to welcome me into residence at the castle.

1334
01:27:16,606 --> 01:27:19,942
And I promise you
that my first consideration,

1335
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,

1336
01:27:25,198 --> 01:27:29,993
will be the welfare of the estate
and of the people who live on it.

1337
01:27:30,078 --> 01:27:32,329
God bless you all.

1338
01:27:32,413 --> 01:27:33,956
(ALL CHEERING)

1339
01:27:39,671 --> 01:27:41,380
MAN: Long live His Grace!

1340
01:27:41,464 --> 01:27:43,090
WOMAN: Long live His Grace.

1341
01:27:50,098 --> 01:27:52,724
Pennyman, Your Grace,
from Sprockett's Farm.

1342
01:27:52,809 --> 01:27:54,434
Mrs Pennyman.

1343
01:27:54,519 --> 01:27:56,436
My son, Tom, from Sprockett's Farm.

1344
01:27:57,105 --> 01:27:59,564
Mr Wyvold, from Sprockett's Farm.

1345
01:28:01,025 --> 01:28:02,609
Sprockett's Farm?

1346
01:28:04,070 --> 01:28:06,405
No, Your Grace. From Scotland Yard.

1347
01:28:09,075 --> 01:28:10,617
Scotland Yard?

1348
01:28:11,369 --> 01:28:13,245
A matter of some delicacy.

1349
01:28:15,581 --> 01:28:16,957
(INAUDIBLE)

1350
01:28:19,085 --> 01:28:20,585
Follow me, please.

1351
01:28:21,087 --> 01:28:24,589
LOUIS: The blow was so sudden
that I found it hard to collect my thoughts.

1352
01:28:26,301 --> 01:28:28,176
Which of them could it be?

1353
01:28:28,970 --> 01:28:32,514
Young Ascoyne? Henry? Ethelred?

1354
01:28:33,391 --> 01:28:36,727
The parson? The general?

1355
01:28:36,811 --> 01:28:38,395
Lady Agatha?

1356
01:28:38,479 --> 01:28:40,605
Or could it be all of them?

1357
01:28:45,778 --> 01:28:47,112
Now.

1358
01:28:47,196 --> 01:28:50,032
You are, I take it,
His Grace, the Duke of Chalfont?

1359
01:28:50,116 --> 01:28:51,241
I am.

1360
01:28:51,326 --> 01:28:55,829
I am Detective Inspector Burgoyne
of the Criminal Investigation Department.

1361
01:28:55,913 --> 01:28:58,248
And I hold a warrant for your arrest
on a charge of murder.

1362
01:28:58,666 --> 01:28:59,833
Murder?

1363
01:29:00,543 --> 01:29:02,169
Of murdering Mr Lionel Holland at...

1364
01:29:02,253 --> 01:29:03,420
Murdering whom?

1365
01:29:03,504 --> 01:29:05,047
Mr Lionel Holland

1366
01:29:05,131 --> 01:29:08,550
at number 242 Connaught Square,
Bayswater

1367
01:29:08,634 --> 01:29:10,802
on the 17th of October last.

1368
01:29:12,972 --> 01:29:14,765
(ALL CLAMOURING)

1369
01:29:21,481 --> 01:29:24,775
LOUIS: Utterly bewildered,
I tried to fathom what series of events

1370
01:29:24,859 --> 01:29:28,028
could conceivably have led
to this not-very-amusing irony.

1371
01:29:28,488 --> 01:29:30,822
I could only suppose that Lionel
had actually carried out

1372
01:29:30,907 --> 01:29:32,657
that drunken threat of suicide.

1373
01:29:33,868 --> 01:29:36,078
But how then had the blame fallen on me?

1374
01:29:36,746 --> 01:29:40,082
Time alone, and the trial,
would reveal the answer.

1375
01:29:40,166 --> 01:29:44,044
Seeing no reason to forego any of
the available privileges of my rank...

1376
01:29:48,800 --> 01:29:51,718
I exercised my right to be tried
before the House of Lords.

1377
01:29:51,803 --> 01:29:56,390
Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini, Duke of Chalfont,

1378
01:29:56,474 --> 01:29:59,351
you, as a peer of England,
are indicted for murder.

1379
01:30:00,228 --> 01:30:01,937
How say you, Your Grace?

1380
01:30:02,021 --> 01:30:05,899
Are you guilty of the felony with which
you are charged or not guilty?

1381
01:30:06,442 --> 01:30:08,777
- Not guilty.
- How will you be tried?

1382
01:30:10,446 --> 01:30:15,283
- By God and my peers.
- God send Your Grace a good deliverance.

1383
01:30:15,701 --> 01:30:20,330
It shall be the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth

1384
01:30:20,415 --> 01:30:21,998
so help me God.

1385
01:30:22,667 --> 01:30:26,336
Mrs Holland, will you tell
Their Lordships in your own words

1386
01:30:26,421 --> 01:30:28,672
the substance of the conversation
you had with your husband

1387
01:30:28,798 --> 01:30:30,674
the evening before his death?

1388
01:30:32,510 --> 01:30:35,679
He told me that Louis... the prisoner,

1389
01:30:36,472 --> 01:30:39,599
was coming to see him the next day
on a rather delicate matter.

1390
01:30:39,684 --> 01:30:41,685
Did he indicate what that matter was?

1391
01:30:43,855 --> 01:30:46,940
He had discovered that
the prisoner and I had been...

1392
01:30:48,484 --> 01:30:50,444
Had been on terms of intimacy?

1393
01:30:51,863 --> 01:30:54,531
- Yes.
- And what was his attitude?

1394
01:30:55,700 --> 01:30:58,493
He felt that the correct thing to do
was to tell him to his face

1395
01:30:58,536 --> 01:31:01,371
that he intended to start
proceedings for divorce.

1396
01:31:02,039 --> 01:31:03,498
From your knowledge of the prisoner

1397
01:31:03,541 --> 01:31:05,959
how would you expect him
to receive that news?

1398
01:31:07,545 --> 01:31:09,880
I should expect him to be very angry.

1399
01:31:10,798 --> 01:31:14,217
Now he was heir to a dukedom,
he had no more use for me.

1400
01:31:14,552 --> 01:31:17,471
I see. He was trying to discard you.

1401
01:31:18,139 --> 01:31:19,222
Yes.

1402
01:31:19,348 --> 01:31:22,684
Mrs Holland, I apologise for submitting you
to this ordeal

1403
01:31:23,352 --> 01:31:27,189
but will you tell Their Lordships
how you found your husband's body?

1404
01:31:29,567 --> 01:31:32,319
I came back about 4:30.

1405
01:31:32,403 --> 01:31:34,196
(SOBBING)

1406
01:31:34,906 --> 01:31:38,492
Their Lordships have no objection
to the witness being seated.

1407
01:31:42,914 --> 01:31:44,498
Yes, Mrs Holland?

1408
01:31:46,375 --> 01:31:48,585
I came back about 4:30.

1409
01:31:49,253 --> 01:31:51,588
I went into my husband's study.

1410
01:31:52,340 --> 01:31:54,841
He was lying on the floor

1411
01:31:55,843 --> 01:31:58,011
with a dagger stuck in his chest.

1412
01:31:58,721 --> 01:32:00,263
One last question, Mrs Holland.

1413
01:32:00,932 --> 01:32:04,434
Had your husband ever, at any time,
threatened suicide?

1414
01:32:05,436 --> 01:32:08,063
- Never.
- Thank you, Mrs Holland.

1415
01:32:11,234 --> 01:32:13,610
My client craves
Their Lordships' permission

1416
01:32:13,694 --> 01:32:15,612
to cross-examine the witness himself.

1417
01:32:16,280 --> 01:32:18,281
Their Lordships grant their permission.

1418
01:32:21,953 --> 01:32:25,956
Mrs Holland, you understand
the meaning of being on oath?

1419
01:32:26,040 --> 01:32:27,916
Of course.

1420
01:32:29,627 --> 01:32:33,255
You realise that a life may depend upon
the truthfulness of your evidence?

1421
01:32:35,383 --> 01:32:36,633
Yes.

1422
01:32:38,636 --> 01:32:41,137
I put it to you that your story
of your conversation with your husband

1423
01:32:41,264 --> 01:32:43,890
on the night before his death
is a complete fabrication.

1424
01:32:43,975 --> 01:32:45,433
It is not.

1425
01:32:46,644 --> 01:32:48,895
I put it to you
that your husband committed suicide.

1426
01:32:49,313 --> 01:32:52,148
He would never have done that
without leaving a message for me.

1427
01:32:52,275 --> 01:32:54,150
Can you swear that he did not?

1428
01:32:55,486 --> 01:32:57,487
The police searched the room
very thoroughly.

1429
01:32:59,073 --> 01:33:00,824
They didn't find anything.

1430
01:33:02,326 --> 01:33:06,913
I suggest that your evidence is a tissue of lies
dictated by motives of revenge.

1431
01:33:11,961 --> 01:33:13,753
(CRYING) It is not.

1432
01:33:14,338 --> 01:33:15,839
It is not.

1433
01:33:15,923 --> 01:33:19,843
I presume that the prisoner has some
purpose in these submissions

1434
01:33:19,927 --> 01:33:21,803
other than that of distressing the witness.

1435
01:33:22,471 --> 01:33:24,639
My purpose, my lord,
is to determine the truth.

1436
01:33:25,600 --> 01:33:28,852
That, Your Grace,
is the whole purpose of this assembly.

1437
01:33:31,188 --> 01:33:35,108
...the whole truth and nothing but the truth,
so help me God.

1438
01:33:38,654 --> 01:33:42,115
You're Edith D'Ascoyne Mazzini,
Duchess of Chalfont?

1439
01:33:42,199 --> 01:33:43,450
I am.

1440
01:33:43,534 --> 01:33:46,369
When and where did you become
the wife of the accused?

1441
01:33:47,038 --> 01:33:49,706
Yesterday morning, in Pentonville Prison.

1442
01:33:49,832 --> 01:33:51,124
(ALL MURMURING)

1443
01:33:51,208 --> 01:33:54,210
I wanted to publish irrevocably
before the whole world

1444
01:33:54,962 --> 01:33:56,379
my faith in his innocence.

1445
01:33:58,341 --> 01:34:00,467
I wanted to show by my marriage

1446
01:34:01,385 --> 01:34:03,803
that though he was led astray,
as I believe

1447
01:34:03,888 --> 01:34:06,806
by that innate kindliness
and courtesy of his

1448
01:34:06,891 --> 01:34:09,851
which made it so hard for him to rebuff
the advances of a woman,

1449
01:34:10,561 --> 01:34:12,145
I nevertheless regard him as a man

1450
01:34:12,229 --> 01:34:14,648
to whom I can happily entrust
the remainder of my life.

1451
01:34:15,232 --> 01:34:17,567
I am not alone
in these opinions of him.

1452
01:34:18,194 --> 01:34:20,028
My late husband, Henry,

1453
01:34:20,071 --> 01:34:22,197
and his late Uncle Ethelred,
the Eighth Duke

1454
01:34:23,240 --> 01:34:26,242
both unfortunately
unable to testify today...

1455
01:34:27,244 --> 01:34:31,206
These and other members
of the D'Ascoyne family, had they been alive

1456
01:34:31,248 --> 01:34:34,042
would, I know, have echoed
every word that I have said.

1457
01:34:34,752 --> 01:34:36,586
Thank you, Your Grace.

1458
01:34:37,922 --> 01:34:39,756
The deceased was a client
of the banking house

1459
01:34:39,882 --> 01:34:41,925
of which you are chairman
and managing director.

1460
01:34:42,051 --> 01:34:43,176
He was.

1461
01:34:43,260 --> 01:34:47,555
In the normal course of business transactions
he would have come to see you at your office.

1462
01:34:47,598 --> 01:34:48,723
Yes.

1463
01:34:48,766 --> 01:34:51,059
Instead of which,
he asked you to go to his house.

1464
01:34:51,102 --> 01:34:52,185
Yes.

1465
01:34:52,269 --> 01:34:54,771
He invited you to his house
to discuss business.

1466
01:34:54,855 --> 01:34:55,939
Yes.

1467
01:34:56,023 --> 01:34:58,108
And you ask Their Lordships
to believe that?

1468
01:34:58,693 --> 01:34:59,859
Yes.

1469
01:35:00,444 --> 01:35:02,612
In the course of this, business discussion

1470
01:35:02,697 --> 01:35:06,116
he burst into tears, fell on his knees
and threatened suicide.

1471
01:35:06,242 --> 01:35:09,119
- Yes.
- Is that usual in business discussions?

1472
01:35:09,620 --> 01:35:12,247
- Not usual. No.
- But it happened on this occasion.

1473
01:35:12,331 --> 01:35:15,583
- Yes.
- And you ask Their Lordships to believe that?

1474
01:35:16,085 --> 01:35:17,669
Yes.

1475
01:35:17,753 --> 01:35:20,505
Then this, business discussion
became so heated

1476
01:35:20,589 --> 01:35:23,800
that blows were exchanged
and he made a murderous attack on you.

1477
01:35:23,884 --> 01:35:25,051
Yes.

1478
01:35:25,136 --> 01:35:27,929
- Is that usual in business discussion?
- No.

1479
01:35:28,013 --> 01:35:31,349
- But it happened on this occasion.
- Yes.

1480
01:35:31,434 --> 01:35:35,603
- And you ask Their Lordships to believe that?
- Yes.

1481
01:35:36,355 --> 01:35:37,480
Very well.

1482
01:35:38,315 --> 01:35:41,776
You've heard of cases of a jealous husband
and his wife's lover coming to blows?

1483
01:35:42,278 --> 01:35:44,195
- Yes.
- Frequently?

1484
01:35:44,822 --> 01:35:47,574
It is one of the clich�s
of the cheaper kind of fiction.

1485
01:35:47,658 --> 01:35:49,325
(ALL LAUGHING)

1486
01:35:51,370 --> 01:35:54,789
I put it to you that, in this case,
it happened not in fiction,

1487
01:35:54,874 --> 01:35:56,082
but in fact.

1488
01:35:56,167 --> 01:35:59,377
- I put it to you that it did not.
- I put it to you further

1489
01:35:59,462 --> 01:36:03,339
that being unaware at that time
of your future wife's forgiving nature

1490
01:36:03,424 --> 01:36:06,301
you assumed that if you were cited
in a divorce suit

1491
01:36:06,385 --> 01:36:09,971
it would ruin your chances
of making this advantageous match

1492
01:36:10,055 --> 01:36:12,515
with a wealthy and beautiful woman.

1493
01:36:13,642 --> 01:36:15,310
No. Not at all.

1494
01:36:15,394 --> 01:36:19,564
Still, you were proposing
to discard Mrs Holland.

1495
01:36:19,648 --> 01:36:21,107
No.

1496
01:36:21,192 --> 01:36:24,569
Even though you were
about to be married to the other lady?

1497
01:36:31,827 --> 01:36:35,288
I must confess to feeling
quite intrigued as to their decision.

1498
01:36:44,548 --> 01:36:49,594
My lords, the question
for Your Lordships is this...

1499
01:36:50,805 --> 01:36:52,847
Is the prisoner guilty

1500
01:36:52,932 --> 01:36:56,559
of the felony whereof
he stands indicted

1501
01:36:56,644 --> 01:36:58,645
or not guilty?

1502
01:37:02,024 --> 01:37:10,198
Guilty, upon mine honour.

1503
01:37:18,207 --> 01:37:22,293
I considered it both seemly and touching
that my dear wife should visit me

1504
01:37:22,378 --> 01:37:25,213
as she did this morning,
to make her farewells.

1505
01:37:26,507 --> 01:37:29,759
Your arrival, on the other hand,
appears to me unseemly

1506
01:37:29,844 --> 01:37:31,803
and tasteless in the extreme.

1507
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

1508
01:37:36,517 --> 01:37:38,268
as you went out from the trial.

1509
01:37:39,228 --> 01:37:43,398
In view of the fact that your evidence
had put the rope round my neck

1510
01:37:43,482 --> 01:37:46,359
you could hardly expect
a glance of warm affection.

1511
01:37:46,443 --> 01:37:49,696
- Isn't there any hope?
- What hope could there be?

1512
01:37:51,031 --> 01:37:53,241
I was only thinking.

1513
01:37:53,325 --> 01:37:55,660
That question you asked at the trial

1514
01:37:56,537 --> 01:37:59,122
about Lionel leaving a suicide note...

1515
01:38:00,374 --> 01:38:03,793
Suppose he did?
Suppose that one were found

1516
01:38:03,878 --> 01:38:06,796
even now, this last evening?

1517
01:38:07,673 --> 01:38:11,175
- It would savour of a miracle.
- Miracles can happen.

1518
01:38:12,344 --> 01:38:14,178
Miracles could happen.

1519
01:38:18,893 --> 01:38:20,143
I see.

1520
01:38:21,645 --> 01:38:24,522
Oh, strange, isn't it, how things turn out?

1521
01:38:24,607 --> 01:38:27,233
Now, if you had married me,
instead of Edith...

1522
01:38:28,068 --> 01:38:30,695
Or you had married me,
instead of Lionel.

1523
01:38:31,447 --> 01:38:32,906
He would still be alive,

1524
01:38:32,990 --> 01:38:35,950
and you wouldn't be going
to be hanged tomorrow morning.

1525
01:38:36,952 --> 01:38:39,871
Unless, of course,
you've murdered somebody else.

1526
01:38:44,126 --> 01:38:46,127
All of which is rather beside the point,
isn't it?

1527
01:38:46,211 --> 01:38:47,295
Is it?

1528
01:38:49,924 --> 01:38:52,258
Do you remember in the old days

1529
01:38:52,343 --> 01:38:55,595
how we used to play
Eeny, meeny, miny, mo?

1530
01:38:55,679 --> 01:39:00,391
- Catch a nigger by his toe.
- If he hollers, let him go. Out goes he.

1531
01:39:02,061 --> 01:39:05,605
Quite a lot of little niggers have gone out,
haven't they, one way or another?

1532
01:39:06,607 --> 01:39:09,567
And every one of them a D'Ascoyne.

1533
01:39:13,572 --> 01:39:16,282
We do seem to be
a very short-lived family.

1534
01:39:17,242 --> 01:39:20,828
Of course, Edith is only
a D'Ascoyne by marriage

1535
01:39:20,913 --> 01:39:23,289
so I suppose
her prospects are better.

1536
01:39:26,502 --> 01:39:28,002
Except for a miracle.

1537
01:39:28,671 --> 01:39:31,005
Like the other one
we were talking about.

1538
01:39:31,090 --> 01:39:34,926
LOUIS: So there it was.
She would find the suicide note

1539
01:39:35,010 --> 01:39:37,595
if I, in return, would murder Edith.

1540
01:39:38,681 --> 01:39:41,140
So we now have two miracles in mind, do we?

1541
01:39:41,850 --> 01:39:42,976
Yes.

1542
01:39:43,060 --> 01:39:46,521
I wonder if they are, in any way,
dependent on each other?

1543
01:39:48,190 --> 01:39:50,358
I suppose perhaps they might be.

1544
01:39:52,361 --> 01:39:54,153
What do you think?

1545
01:39:55,948 --> 01:39:57,323
Time's up.

1546
01:40:02,204 --> 01:40:03,913
What do you think?

1547
01:40:05,332 --> 01:40:09,419
Poor Edith. I'm afraid all this is going
to take years off her life.

1548
01:40:13,090 --> 01:40:16,509
- Au revoir, Louis.
- Au revoir.

1549
01:40:17,720 --> 01:40:19,637
LOUIS: What could I do but accept?

1550
01:40:19,722 --> 01:40:22,849
After all, I could always decide afterwards

1551
01:40:22,933 --> 01:40:25,977
which of these two little niggers
would finally have to go.

1552
01:40:26,061 --> 01:40:27,562
Dear Edith.

1553
01:40:28,272 --> 01:40:30,398
Captivating Sibella.

1554
01:40:30,482 --> 01:40:34,110
How different they were,
and how well I knew each of them.

1555
01:40:34,987 --> 01:40:36,362
Or so I thought.

1556
01:40:37,197 --> 01:40:40,033
But the night has gone by
and nothing has happened.

1557
01:40:40,617 --> 01:40:42,869
It is now but a few minutes to 8:00.

1558
01:40:42,953 --> 01:40:47,040
And I realise that Sibella
came yesterday merely to tantalise,

1559
01:40:47,124 --> 01:40:50,126
to raise my hopes
in order to dash them again.

1560
01:40:50,210 --> 01:40:52,670
How unlike me not to have guessed.

1561
01:40:53,505 --> 01:40:57,341
But, after all, how very like Sibella.

1562
01:41:04,892 --> 01:41:07,101
(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)

1563
01:41:21,742 --> 01:41:23,076
Already?

1564
01:41:24,578 --> 01:41:26,788
I'll tell you who time gallops withal.

1565
01:41:26,872 --> 01:41:28,498
"With a thief to the gallows,

1566
01:41:28,582 --> 01:41:33,753
"for though he tread as softly as foot can fall,
he thinks himself too soon there."

1567
01:41:34,880 --> 01:41:36,422
If you have any last instructions...

1568
01:41:36,507 --> 01:41:40,301
I think, Colonel, it only remains
to thank you for your many kindnesses.

1569
01:41:41,011 --> 01:41:42,678
Won't you introduce our friend?

1570
01:41:44,640 --> 01:41:48,017
Mr Elliott, His Grace, the Duke of Chalfont.

1571
01:41:50,020 --> 01:41:51,521
Good morning, Your Grace.

1572
01:41:52,439 --> 01:41:54,065
This won't take a moment.

1573
01:41:54,775 --> 01:41:58,528
First, if Your Grace will pardon the liberty

1574
01:41:58,612 --> 01:42:01,280
I should like to read some verses

1575
01:42:01,365 --> 01:42:05,159
composed by myself for use
on these melancholy occasions.

1576
01:42:06,537 --> 01:42:08,996
- Your Grace permits?
- With pleasure.

1577
01:42:14,378 --> 01:42:17,004
"My friend, reflect.

1578
01:42:17,589 --> 01:42:20,174
Oh. Pardon.

1579
01:42:21,009 --> 01:42:23,219
"Your Grace, reflect.

1580
01:42:23,804 --> 01:42:29,058
"While yet of mortal breath,
some span however short, is left to thee

1581
01:42:29,768 --> 01:42:34,188
"how brief the total span twixt birth and death

1582
01:42:34,273 --> 01:42:39,152
"how long thy coming tenure of eternity.

1583
01:42:41,405 --> 01:42:44,157
"Your Grace, prepare..."

1584
01:42:44,241 --> 01:42:45,283
(FOOTSTEPS RUNNING)

1585
01:42:48,328 --> 01:42:50,204
Colonel.

1586
01:42:55,210 --> 01:42:56,460
Your Grace,

1587
01:42:56,545 --> 01:42:58,296
I am happy to inform you
that a telephone communication

1588
01:42:58,380 --> 01:43:00,423
has just been received from the Home Office.

1589
01:43:00,507 --> 01:43:03,509
A note has been found,
undoubtedly in Mr Holland's handwriting

1590
01:43:03,594 --> 01:43:06,387
expressing his intention to commit suicide.

1591
01:43:06,471 --> 01:43:07,597
It is a miracle.

1592
01:43:08,640 --> 01:43:11,309
Yes. It is like a miracle.

1593
01:43:12,686 --> 01:43:14,228
Pending receipt of further instructions

1594
01:43:14,313 --> 01:43:17,648
I will try to make you reasonably
comfortable in my quarters.

1595
01:43:18,901 --> 01:43:21,444
- Good morning.
- Good morning, Your Grace, sir.

1596
01:43:29,536 --> 01:43:33,414
I assure you I have never been
more happy to be relieved of an official duty.

1597
01:43:34,541 --> 01:43:35,917
Poor Elliott.

1598
01:43:36,460 --> 01:43:38,794
If he had not insisted
on reading that abominable poem

1599
01:43:38,879 --> 01:43:42,089
he would have had me neatly dangling
at the end of his rope before the news arrived.

1600
01:43:43,467 --> 01:43:45,343
He was so looking forward to it.

1601
01:43:45,427 --> 01:43:47,511
I understand, Your Grace,
from the men on duty outside

1602
01:43:47,596 --> 01:43:49,889
that a large crowd awaits your leaving.

1603
01:43:49,973 --> 01:43:51,766
Having robbed them
of the pleasure of my death

1604
01:43:51,850 --> 01:43:53,726
the least I can do is to let them see me alive.

1605
01:43:54,519 --> 01:43:57,730
Including, by the way,
not only Her Grace, the duchess

1606
01:43:57,814 --> 01:43:59,565
but also Mrs Holland.

1607
01:43:59,650 --> 01:44:01,025
Oh.

1608
01:44:01,693 --> 01:44:03,277
How does the song go?

1609
01:44:03,362 --> 01:44:07,615
"How happy could I be with either
were t'other dear charmer away."

1610
01:44:07,699 --> 01:44:08,741
Well, good-bye.

1611
01:44:08,825 --> 01:44:10,785
Good-bye, Your Grace.

1612
01:44:14,748 --> 01:44:16,582
(PEOPLE CHEERING)

1613
01:44:43,527 --> 01:44:45,945
"How happy could I be with either

1614
01:44:46,029 --> 01:44:48,239
"were t'other dear charmer away."

1615
01:44:50,409 --> 01:44:52,660
- Your Grace.
- Yes?

1616
01:44:53,370 --> 01:44:55,788
I represent the magazine Titbits

1617
01:44:55,872 --> 01:44:57,748
by whom I'm commissioned
to approach you

1618
01:44:57,833 --> 01:45:00,126
for the publication rights
of your memoirs.

1619
01:45:00,585 --> 01:45:02,086
My memoirs?

1620
01:45:03,213 --> 01:45:09,427
My memoirs.