1
00:02:16,900 --> 00:02:19,637
- Evening, Mr Elliott.
- Good evening.

2
00:02:22,975 --> 00:02:23,975
Brr.

3
00:02:24,713 --> 00:02:27,062
- Just sign the book, if you will?
- Yes.

4
00:02:27,813 --> 00:02:30,640
- Been keeping you busy, Mr Elliott?
- Oh, just nicely.

5
00:02:30,740 --> 00:02:33,310
Went up to Manchester on Monday,
a poisoner.

6
00:02:33,410 --> 00:02:36,959
Baby-farmer at Holloway this morning.
Very ordinary crimes, both of them.

7
00:02:37,059 --> 00:02:39,399
This one we've got for you tomorrow
is something special.

8
00:02:39,499 --> 00:02:41,234
Yes, very much so.

9
00:02:41,334 --> 00:02:43,536
Even after all my years
in the profession,

10
00:02:43,662 --> 00:02:45,739
I'm quite looking forward to him.

11
00:02:45,839 --> 00:02:48,030
- Well, I must be getting along.
- Good night, Mr Elliott.

12
00:02:48,130 --> 00:02:49,709
- Good night.
- Usual cup of tea at 7:00?

13
00:02:49,835 --> 00:02:50,835
Oh, please.

14
00:02:52,004 --> 00:02:55,749
Even my lamented master,
the great Mr Barry himself

15
00:02:55,849 --> 00:02:58,251
never had the privilege
of hanging a duke.

16
00:02:58,351 --> 00:02:59,351
Yes.

17
00:02:59,678 --> 00:03:02,985
What a finale to a lifetime
in the public service.

18
00:03:03,085 --> 00:03:05,892
- "Finale"?
- Yes, I intend to retire.

19
00:03:06,018 --> 00:03:08,512
After using the silken rope,

20
00:03:08,612 --> 00:03:11,765
never again be content with hemp.

21
00:03:11,865 --> 00:03:14,359
- Quite. Well, here we are.
- Oh, thank you.

22
00:03:31,085 --> 00:03:32,807
How will he approach it?

23
00:03:32,907 --> 00:03:35,476
I should think
as the calmest you've ever known.

24
00:03:35,576 --> 00:03:38,383
Noblesse oblige, doubtless.

25
00:03:38,509 --> 00:03:42,983
A difficult client can make things
most distressing.

26
00:03:43,083 --> 00:03:45,861
Some of them tend
to be very hysterical.

27
00:03:45,961 --> 00:03:47,843
So inconsiderate.

28
00:03:47,943 --> 00:03:51,867
Well, Colonel, considering
the importance of the occasion,

29
00:03:51,967 --> 00:03:54,065
I shall retire early.

30
00:03:54,191 --> 00:03:58,666
The last execution of a duke in this country
was very badly bungled.

31
00:03:58,766 --> 00:04:01,335
That was in the old days of the axe,
of course.

32
00:04:01,435 --> 00:04:02,435
Yes.

33
00:04:03,576 --> 00:04:06,244
Oh, I... I almost forgot.

34
00:04:06,370 --> 00:04:09,343
Um, you must forgive my ignorance

35
00:04:09,443 --> 00:04:12,388
but when we meet in the morning,

36
00:04:12,488 --> 00:04:14,961
what is the correct form of address?

37
00:04:15,087 --> 00:04:17,463
- Your Lordship?
- Your Grace.

38
00:04:17,590 --> 00:04:20,896
"Your Grace"? Oh.

39
00:04:20,996 --> 00:04:22,594
Thank you.

40
00:04:24,263 --> 00:04:28,766
Good morning, Your Grace.

41
00:04:41,906 --> 00:04:44,782
- All right. Sit down.
- Ah, good evening, Colonel. Glass of wine?

42
00:04:44,909 --> 00:04:47,493
Good evening, Your Grace.
Uh, thank you, no.

43
00:04:47,620 --> 00:04:51,664
I, uh, I called to inquire whether
you had any special wishes for breakfast.

44
00:04:51,790 --> 00:04:54,792

Just coffee and a slice of toast, thank you.

45
00:04:54,919 --> 00:04:56,794
Oh, and perhaps a few grapes.

46
00:04:56,921 --> 00:04:58,852
I hate to disappoint
the newspaper-reading public

47
00:04:58,952 --> 00:05:01,841
but it'll be too early
for the conventional hearty breakfast.

48
00:05:01,967 --> 00:05:03,939
The appointment is at 8:00,
is it not?

49
00:05:04,039 --> 00:05:06,012
At 8:00, uh, yes.

50
00:05:06,138 --> 00:05:09,641
If I may venture to say so,
I am amazed at your calmness.

51
00:05:11,644 --> 00:05:14,241
Dr Johnson was, as always, right,

52
00:05:14,341 --> 00:05:16,285
when he observed,
"Depend upon it, sir.

53
00:05:16,385 --> 00:05:18,865
"When a man knows that he's going
to be hanged in a few hours,

54
00:05:18,984 --> 00:05:21,361
"it concentrates his mind wonderfully."

55
00:05:21,862 --> 00:05:25,490
Yes. Well, if there is nothing further
I can do for you...

56
00:05:25,616 --> 00:05:26,962
Nothing, thank you, Colonel.

57
00:05:27,062 --> 00:05:30,925
We shall have the opportunity of making
our adieus in the morning, I presume.

58
00:05:31,025 --> 00:05:32,997
I regret to say, yes.

59
00:05:34,667 --> 00:05:37,168
- Good night, Your Grace.
- Good night, Colonel.

60
00:05:46,220 --> 00:05:50,014
A brief history
of the events leading thereto

61
00:05:50,140 --> 00:05:52,517
written on the eve of his execution

62
00:05:52,643 --> 00:05:56,521
by Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini,
10th Duke of Chalfont

63
00:05:57,523 --> 00:06:00,066
who ventures to hope
that it may prove not uninteresting

64
00:06:00,192 --> 00:06:03,027
to those who remain to read it.

65
00:06:09,034 --> 00:06:13,175
My good man, it is not by my choice
that you keep me company.

66
00:06:13,275 --> 00:06:17,041
If you wish to sleep, pray do me
the courtesy of sleeping quietly.

67
00:06:20,379 --> 00:06:23,589
With so little time
remaining to complete my story,

68
00:06:23,716 --> 00:06:26,313
it is difficult to choose
where to begin it.

69
00:06:26,413 --> 00:06:28,013
Perhaps I should begin
at the beginning.

70
00:06:29,221 --> 00:06:34,434
I was a healthy baby,
born of an English mother and Italian father,

71
00:06:35,936 --> 00:06:39,868
Who succumbed to a heart attack
at the moment of first setting eyes on me.

72
00:06:39,968 --> 00:06:44,110
In the circumstances, it will be understood
that I have but slight memory of him.

73
00:06:44,236 --> 00:06:46,696
The little I know comes
from what Mama told me.

74
00:07:08,218 --> 00:07:10,553
Your father was a very handsome man.

75
00:08:04,149 --> 00:08:07,318
Mama was the daughter
of the seventh duke of Chalfont

76
00:08:07,444 --> 00:08:09,320
of Chalfont Castle.

77
00:08:10,364 --> 00:08:12,657
She eloped with her handsome singer

78
00:08:12,783 --> 00:08:16,494
and exchanged the medieval splendours
of Chalfont Castle

79
00:08:16,620 --> 00:08:17,966
for the modern conveniences

80
00:08:18,066 --> 00:08:20,665
of No 73, Balaclava Avenue, SW.

81
00:08:29,675 --> 00:08:33,774
They were poor, but they had
five happy and harmonious years

82
00:08:33,874 --> 00:08:37,515
before my arrival sent Papa off
to join the heavenly choir.

83
00:08:43,397 --> 00:08:46,286
Reduced to even deeper poverty
by my father's death,

84
00:08:46,386 --> 00:08:48,234
Mama swallowed her pride

85
00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:51,959
and made an effort at reconciliation
with her family.

86
00:08:52,059 --> 00:08:54,699
They did not even reply to her letter.

87
00:08:55,868 --> 00:08:58,077
In order to keep us both alive,
she was reduced

88
00:08:58,203 --> 00:09:00,496
to the horrible expedient
of taking in a lodger.

89
00:09:02,624 --> 00:09:06,210
For him, she had to perform
the most menial tasks.

90
00:09:06,336 --> 00:09:10,644
She felt that her family had conspired
to cheat me of my birthright,

91
00:09:10,744 --> 00:09:12,884
and I passed
from infancy to childhood

92
00:09:13,010 --> 00:09:16,304
in an atmosphere
of family history and genealogies.

93
00:09:17,514 --> 00:09:19,223
The dukedom had been bestowed

94
00:09:19,349 --> 00:09:22,810
by Charles II
on Colonel Henry D'Ascoyne

95
00:09:23,687 --> 00:09:26,981
for services rendered to His Majesty
during his exile.

96
00:09:28,066 --> 00:09:30,902
Later, for services rendered
to His Majesty

97
00:09:31,028 --> 00:09:33,988
after his restoration by the Duchess,

98
00:09:34,490 --> 00:09:36,399
the title was granted
the unique privilege

99
00:09:36,499 --> 00:09:38,993
of descending by the female
as well as the male line.

100
00:09:40,370 --> 00:09:41,412
Louis.

101
00:09:41,538 --> 00:09:43,915
It was therefore theoretically possible

102
00:09:44,041 --> 00:09:47,084
that via Mama I might inherit the dukedom.

103
00:09:49,755 --> 00:09:51,748
Mama scraped and saved

104
00:09:51,848 --> 00:09:55,001
and sent me to the best school
she could afford.

105
00:09:55,101 --> 00:09:58,025
One little incident of my school days
occurs to me as amusing

106
00:09:58,125 --> 00:09:59,860
in relation to my present situation.

107
00:09:59,960 --> 00:10:01,599
Lionel Holland.

108
00:10:02,768 --> 00:10:04,560
What is the Sixth Commandment?

109
00:10:05,771 --> 00:10:07,772
Come, come now.

110
00:10:08,899 --> 00:10:10,016
Someone else then.

111
00:10:10,116 --> 00:10:12,276
I know, please, Miss Waterman.

112
00:10:12,402 --> 00:10:14,695
Louis Mazzini. Tell him.

113
00:10:16,532 --> 00:10:19,108
- Thou shalt not kill.
- Quite right, Louis.

114
00:10:19,208 --> 00:10:21,786
The Sixth Commandment is,
"Thou shalt not kill."

115
00:10:21,912 --> 00:10:23,550
No, in those days,

116
00:10:23,650 --> 00:10:26,720
I never had any trouble
with the Sixth Commandment.

117
00:10:26,820 --> 00:10:31,204
As to the Seventh, I was hardly of an age
to concern myself with it.

118
00:10:31,304 --> 00:10:34,394
Although I was old enough
to be in love.

119
00:10:34,494 --> 00:10:37,377
So Sibella enters my story.

120
00:10:37,477 --> 00:10:39,971
Sibella and her brother, Graham,
were my only close friends

121
00:10:40,097 --> 00:10:42,215
and we grew up together.

122
00:10:42,315 --> 00:10:46,811
In their case, Mama relaxed her objection
to my associating with the local children.

123
00:10:47,479 --> 00:10:51,482
At least their father, Dr Halworth,
was a professional man.

124
00:10:52,609 --> 00:10:56,612
Louis, we must think very carefully
about your future.

125
00:10:57,155 --> 00:10:58,990
Well, it should be quite easy
to get a job.

126
00:10:59,116 --> 00:11:01,826
Not a job, dear. A career.

127
00:11:03,787 --> 00:11:06,406
I had hoped for Cambridge for you.

128
00:11:06,506 --> 00:11:08,825
The D'Ascoynes always go to Trinity.

129
00:11:08,925 --> 00:11:12,003
And then, perhaps, the diplomatic.

130
00:11:12,129 --> 00:11:15,256
But I'm afraid it's no use
looking as high as that.

131
00:11:16,258 --> 00:11:18,668
However, when you've
passed your examination

132
00:11:18,768 --> 00:11:21,671
that should equip you for a start
in one of the professions.

133
00:11:21,771 --> 00:11:26,017
People of quite good family go into
the professions nowadays, I understand.

134
00:11:27,185 --> 00:11:29,854
Now, who do we know
who could help us?

135
00:11:30,856 --> 00:11:35,101
We don't really know anyone,
except the family, and they don't know us.

136
00:11:35,201 --> 00:11:37,862
The least we can do
is try once more.

137
00:11:40,365 --> 00:11:43,034
I shall write
to Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne.

138
00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:45,870
He can surely do something
in that bank of his.

139
00:11:45,996 --> 00:11:49,040
Bank, Mama? Is that a profession?

140
00:11:49,166 --> 00:11:51,876
This is a private bank, Louis, dear.

141
00:11:52,002 --> 00:11:54,454
They don't pass money over the counter.

142
00:11:54,554 --> 00:11:56,372
The letter was duly dispatched

143
00:11:56,472 --> 00:11:58,716
and this time we did get an answer.

144
00:11:58,842 --> 00:12:02,053
"Madam, I am instructed
by Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne

145
00:12:02,179 --> 00:12:05,381
"to inform you that he is not aware
of your son's existence

146
00:12:05,481 --> 00:12:08,559
"as a member
of the D'Ascoyne family."

147
00:12:08,685 --> 00:12:11,062
Signed by his secretary.

148
00:12:11,188 --> 00:12:14,732
It's very stupid of him, of them all,
not to admit your existence

149
00:12:14,858 --> 00:12:17,664
when one day you might be
duke of Chalfont.

150
00:12:17,764 --> 00:12:19,729
It's a very big "might," Mama.

151
00:12:19,829 --> 00:12:22,239
There must be at least 12 people
before me

152
00:12:22,366 --> 00:12:24,671
to say nothing of the ones
who haven't been born yet.

153
00:12:24,771 --> 00:12:27,320
Stranger things have happened.

154
00:12:27,420 --> 00:12:30,414
I don't wish to be unchristian,
but in view of their attitude,

155
00:12:30,540 --> 00:12:34,001
I could almost wish those 12 people
should all die tomorrow.

156
00:12:35,420 --> 00:12:37,254
All except one, Mama.

157
00:12:37,381 --> 00:12:40,883
Because you must be duchess
of Chalfont before I'm duke.

158
00:12:43,679 --> 00:12:47,757
It will have to be a job, not a career,
after all, Mama.

159
00:12:47,857 --> 00:12:50,176
I'm afraid so, Louis.

160
00:12:50,276 --> 00:12:52,679
A D'Ascoyne in trade.

161
00:12:52,779 --> 00:12:55,202
Did poor Mama's silly dreaming

162
00:12:55,302 --> 00:12:58,776
plant in my brain some seed
which was afterwards to grow

163
00:12:58,902 --> 00:13:02,355
into the most sensational
criminal endeavour of the century?

164
00:13:02,455 --> 00:13:04,782
If so, I was not conscious of it
at the time

165
00:13:04,908 --> 00:13:07,193
for there were things
of more immediate concern.

166
00:13:07,293 --> 00:13:09,862
Even potential dukes have to eat.

167
00:13:09,962 --> 00:13:13,366
Mr Perkins,
our lodger for nearly 15 years,

168
00:13:13,466 --> 00:13:15,055
did his best to be helpful.

169
00:13:15,155 --> 00:13:17,724
He was employed as shop walker
in a local drapery store

170
00:13:17,824 --> 00:13:19,726
and found employment for me there.

171
00:13:19,826 --> 00:13:22,041
The possible future duke of Chalfont

172
00:13:22,141 --> 00:13:26,379
became what was known
as a general assistant at the drapery.

173
00:13:26,479 --> 00:13:30,599
This humiliation continued
for two dispiriting years.

174
00:13:31,727 --> 00:13:34,721
And then one day, Mama,
who had broken her glasses

175
00:13:34,821 --> 00:13:37,140
and could not afford
to have them mended,

176
00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:40,151
was knocked down by a tram
near Clapham Junction

177
00:13:40,277 --> 00:13:42,153
and fatally injured.

178
00:13:44,156 --> 00:13:46,824
- Louis.
- Yes, Mama.

179
00:13:48,285 --> 00:13:51,412
I should like to be buried
at Chalfont,

180
00:13:52,122 --> 00:13:54,123
in the family vault.

181
00:13:55,834 --> 00:13:57,293
Yes, Mama.

182
00:14:06,511 --> 00:14:11,007
I wrote to the Duke
informing him of Mama's dying wish.

183
00:14:11,107 --> 00:14:14,185
His reply
was the curtest possible refusal.

184
00:14:14,311 --> 00:14:18,765
Standing by Mama's poor little grave
in that hideous suburban cemetery,

185
00:14:18,865 --> 00:14:23,319
I made an oath that I would revenge
the wrongs her family had done her.

186
00:14:24,696 --> 00:14:27,961
It was no more than
a piece of youthful bravado

187
00:14:28,061 --> 00:14:32,779
but it was one of those acorns
from which great oaks are destined to grow.

188
00:14:32,879 --> 00:14:35,469
Even then I went so far
as to examine the family tree

189
00:14:35,569 --> 00:14:38,305
and prune it
to just the living members.

190
00:14:38,405 --> 00:14:41,037
But what could I do to hurt them?

191
00:14:41,137 --> 00:14:43,414
What could I take from them,

192
00:14:43,514 --> 00:14:47,043
except, perhaps, their lives?

193
00:14:47,143 --> 00:14:49,837
I indulged for a moment
in a fantasy of all 12 of them

194
00:14:49,937 --> 00:14:52,673
being wiped out simultaneously
at a family reunion

195
00:14:52,773 --> 00:14:54,467
by my unseen hand.

196
00:14:54,567 --> 00:14:59,347
Of the penniless boy from Clapham being
miraculously transplanted to his birthright.

197
00:14:59,447 --> 00:15:02,191
I even speculated
as to how I might contrive it.

198
00:15:03,777 --> 00:15:05,728
But there were
other more urgent problems.

199
00:15:05,828 --> 00:15:09,573
Mama's tiny income came from an annuity
and had died with her.

200
00:15:11,076 --> 00:15:15,404
The problem of how to live
on 25 shillings a week was solved for me

201
00:15:15,504 --> 00:15:18,658
by an invitation from Dr Halworth
to lodge with them.

202
00:15:18,758 --> 00:15:22,495
It was galling to accept the status
of a poor relation

203
00:15:22,595 --> 00:15:26,632
but the certainty of seeing Sibella every day
was too tempting to be refused.

204
00:15:27,467 --> 00:15:30,962
Louis, I'm so glad you accepted.

205
00:15:31,062 --> 00:15:33,013
It was my idea, you know.

206
00:15:34,099 --> 00:15:36,579
- I've brought you something.
- Oh, Louis, you shouldn't have.

207
00:15:36,692 --> 00:15:39,061
You can't possibly afford it.

208
00:15:41,690 --> 00:15:44,066
Oh, what a bother. There's Lionel.

209
00:15:44,484 --> 00:15:46,443
See you at supper.

210
00:15:56,955 --> 00:16:00,533
The next few years
brought many such heartbreaks,

211
00:16:00,633 --> 00:16:02,535
but they also brought promotion.

212
00:16:02,635 --> 00:16:05,329
Laces and ribbons
at 30 shillings a week,

213
00:16:05,429 --> 00:16:07,957
fabrics at 32 and six.

214
00:16:08,057 --> 00:16:10,968
Finally, ladies' underwear at 35.

215
00:16:22,147 --> 00:16:24,599
I decided that
if I was to be a draper,

216
00:16:24,699 --> 00:16:28,019
at least I would not be
a suburban draper.

217
00:16:28,119 --> 00:16:32,106
So I migrated to a large modern store which
had just been opened in the West End,

218
00:16:32,206 --> 00:16:35,326
at the gigantic salary of £2 a week.

219
00:16:37,287 --> 00:16:40,656
Every lunchtime I went to see
how my inheritance was proceeding.

220
00:16:40,756 --> 00:16:43,709
Sometimes the deaths column
brought good news.

221
00:16:52,510 --> 00:16:55,679
Sometimes,
the births column brought bad.

222
00:16:57,390 --> 00:17:01,018
The advent of twin sons to the Duke
was a terrible blow.

223
00:17:03,688 --> 00:17:05,973
Fortunately, an epidemic of diphtheria

224
00:17:06,073 --> 00:17:09,060
restored the status quo almost immediately

225
00:17:09,160 --> 00:17:12,446
and even brought me a bonus
in the shape of the Duchess.

226
00:17:13,657 --> 00:17:16,325
That summer, the Halworths gave a party.

227
00:17:24,125 --> 00:17:26,710
- Good evening, Sibella.
- Hello, Louis.

228
00:17:27,796 --> 00:17:30,623
- You do look nice.
- So do you.

229
00:17:30,723 --> 00:17:33,217
- Doesn't he, Lionel?
- Very.

230
00:17:42,143 --> 00:17:44,011
Emboldened by her kindness to me,

231
00:17:44,111 --> 00:17:47,106
I made a decision
I'd been toying with for some time.

232
00:17:48,566 --> 00:17:51,485
Well, that's the last of them,
thank heaven.

233
00:17:52,445 --> 00:17:54,855
- What an evening.
- I thought it was a very nice evening.

234
00:17:54,955 --> 00:17:56,983
It may have been for you. Oh!

235
00:17:57,083 --> 00:18:01,570
It's awful being a woman,
having to dance with a lot of dull men,

236
00:18:01,670 --> 00:18:04,657
laugh at their jokes
while they're treading on your feet.

237
00:18:04,757 --> 00:18:07,660
- I didn't tread on your feet.
- You're not dull.

238
00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:10,337
- And your jokes are funny.
- Thank you.

239
00:18:11,548 --> 00:18:13,791
- Sibella?
- Mmm-hmm?

240
00:18:13,891 --> 00:18:16,635
Sibella, will you marry me?

241
00:18:18,847 --> 00:18:21,549
Louis, of course not. Do get up.

242
00:18:21,649 --> 00:18:23,634
You may be half Italian,
but even so,

243
00:18:23,734 --> 00:18:26,262
you do look silly
playing the stage lover like that.

244
00:18:26,362 --> 00:18:28,814
- Oh, I look silly, do I?
- Yes. Very.

245
00:18:35,989 --> 00:18:37,948
Do I still look silly?

246
00:18:44,622 --> 00:18:46,707
Now, will you marry me?

247
00:18:47,542 --> 00:18:48,542
No.

248
00:18:49,753 --> 00:18:52,796
- Why not?
- Because I just said I'd marry Lionel.

249
00:18:55,175 --> 00:18:57,710
- You can't.
- Why not?

250
00:18:57,810 --> 00:18:59,636
Well, he's a clod.
He's not a gentleman.

251
00:19:00,305 --> 00:19:02,298
Listen to who's talking.

252
00:19:02,398 --> 00:19:05,642
Whoever heard of a gentleman
blacking the lodger's boots?

253
00:19:06,061 --> 00:19:08,937
That's a wicked thing to say.
Just because Mama was poor.

254
00:19:09,189 --> 00:19:11,231
Lionel will be very rich one day.

255
00:19:11,524 --> 00:19:15,269
- I might be a duke one day.
- Pigs might fly.

256
00:19:15,369 --> 00:19:18,731
No, I might. Really, I might.
You see, Mama was the daughter...

257
00:19:18,831 --> 00:19:20,608
Oh, yes. I know.

258
00:19:20,708 --> 00:19:22,318
Well, when you are a duke,

259
00:19:22,418 --> 00:19:25,196
you just come and show me your crown,
or whatever it's called

260
00:19:25,296 --> 00:19:27,573
and then I'll feel awfully silly,
won't I?

261
00:19:27,673 --> 00:19:28,699
Yes, you will.

262
00:19:28,799 --> 00:19:32,294
Anyhow, I'm going to marry Lionel
and now I'm going to bed.

263
00:19:36,216 --> 00:19:38,016
You will.

264
00:19:41,805 --> 00:19:43,380
If there was a precise moment

265
00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:46,550
at which my insubstantial dreaming
took on solid purpose

266
00:19:46,650 --> 00:19:48,511
that was it.

267
00:19:48,611 --> 00:19:51,514
The D'Ascoynes had not only
wronged my mother,

268
00:19:51,614 --> 00:19:55,109
they were the obstacle between me
and all that I wanted.

269
00:19:56,277 --> 00:19:59,980
The more I thought of them,
these people whom I had studied

270
00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:03,692
until I knew their names and histories
as well as I knew my own,

271
00:20:03,792 --> 00:20:06,904
the more they became monsters
of arrogance and cruelty

272
00:20:07,004 --> 00:20:11,083
whose only function in the world
was to deprive me of my birthright.

273
00:20:13,837 --> 00:20:17,214
I had seen Chalfont
only as Mama had painted it.

274
00:20:21,845 --> 00:20:24,672
To pass in through
that magnificent gateway,

275
00:20:24,772 --> 00:20:29,468
on Visitors Day at a cost of sixpence
was a humiliating experience,

276
00:20:29,568 --> 00:20:32,012
but I forced myself to undergo it.

277
00:20:32,112 --> 00:20:36,191
I wanted a closer view of the target
at which I had determined to aim.

278
00:20:39,821 --> 00:20:43,115
I little expected to catch
a glimpse of the bull's-eye.

279
00:20:47,495 --> 00:20:48,912
Excuse me, sir.

280
00:20:49,622 --> 00:20:52,783
There were then some eight people
between me and the dukedom

281
00:20:52,883 --> 00:20:55,286
all seemingly equally out of reach.

282
00:20:55,386 --> 00:20:57,830
It is so difficult to make a neat job
of killing people

283
00:20:57,930 --> 00:21:00,757
with whom one is not
on friendly terms.

284
00:21:01,176 --> 00:21:04,295
I was almost resigned
to its being an impossibility

285
00:21:04,395 --> 00:21:08,174
when one afternoon, at a moment when
my thoughts were furthest from the subject

286
00:21:08,274 --> 00:21:10,301
fate took a hand.

287
00:21:10,401 --> 00:21:13,353
If you've nothing better,
those will have to do.

288
00:21:13,813 --> 00:21:16,223
These London shops
are so far behind Paris.

289
00:21:16,323 --> 00:21:18,601
Parcel them up quickly,
and we'll take them with us.

290
00:21:18,701 --> 00:21:21,528
- Charge them to my account.
- Yes, sir. What is the name?

291
00:21:22,322 --> 00:21:24,364
Mr Ascoyne D'Ascoyne.

292
00:21:26,117 --> 00:21:29,278
At last, I was face to face with one of them.

293
00:21:29,378 --> 00:21:32,656
This was the son
of Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne, the banker,

294
00:21:32,756 --> 00:21:35,701
whose refusal to help me
towards a more dignified career

295
00:21:35,801 --> 00:21:38,503
had led to my present
ignominious occupation.

296
00:21:39,422 --> 00:21:41,207
What right had this arrogant puppy

297
00:21:41,307 --> 00:21:45,002
to be standing on the other side
of the counter ordering me about?

298
00:21:45,102 --> 00:21:48,214
In my excitement and anger,
I listened openly to their conversation.

299
00:21:48,314 --> 00:21:51,091
I've booked rooms
at Cruickshanks' at Maidenhead.

300
00:21:51,191 --> 00:21:52,968
We'll go down late
on Friday afternoon.

301
00:21:53,068 --> 00:21:54,720
Are you sure it's safe?

302
00:21:54,820 --> 00:21:58,190
It's the most discreet place.
In fact, anonymous.

303
00:21:59,442 --> 00:22:02,895
Hey, you. Get on with that parcel,
and never mind what we're talking about.

304
00:22:02,995 --> 00:22:05,356
Don't you dare touch me like that!

305
00:22:05,456 --> 00:22:08,317
I'm not interested
in your idiotic conversation.

306
00:22:08,417 --> 00:22:11,870
If you want to add impertinence
to your eavesdropping

307
00:22:12,622 --> 00:22:14,790
we'll soon see about that.

308
00:22:16,542 --> 00:22:19,912
The upshot was
that I was dismissed on the spot.

309
00:22:20,012 --> 00:22:22,539
I decided to repay him in kind

310
00:22:22,639 --> 00:22:26,543
by dismissing him with equal
suddenness from this world.

311
00:22:26,643 --> 00:22:30,798
His conversation had told me where I could
probably find the opportunity to kill him.

312
00:22:30,898 --> 00:22:34,434
Dr Halworth's dispensary
had provided me with a means.

313
00:22:36,729 --> 00:22:39,598
With the week's wages
I had received in lieu of notice,

314
00:22:39,698 --> 00:22:43,068
I invested in suitable apparel
for a weekend at Maidenhead.

315
00:22:52,870 --> 00:22:55,531
It was possible
they might remember me

316
00:22:55,631 --> 00:22:57,241
but I thought it unlikely,

317
00:22:57,341 --> 00:23:00,577
shop assistants being commonly
regarded as an inferior race

318
00:23:00,677 --> 00:23:03,797
who never emerged
from the other side of the counter.

319
00:23:06,968 --> 00:23:09,886
I decided
to take the bull by the horns.

320
00:23:11,347 --> 00:23:14,008
Forgive me. I wonder if you could
oblige me with a match.

321
00:23:14,108 --> 00:23:15,934
- Certainly.
- Thank you.

322
00:23:16,894 --> 00:23:20,564
- Haven't we met before somewhere?
- I don't think so.

323
00:23:21,232 --> 00:23:24,268
Funny, 'cause I could have sworn
I knew your face.

324
00:23:24,368 --> 00:23:26,562
- Were you at Monte last year?
- The year before.

325
00:23:26,662 --> 00:23:29,356
Ah, that must be it.
Won't you join me?

326
00:23:29,456 --> 00:23:31,608
Thank you. Not this evening.

327
00:23:31,708 --> 00:23:33,618
We are rather tired.

328
00:23:39,959 --> 00:23:43,120
I deprecated their retiring so early,

329
00:23:43,220 --> 00:23:45,122
but it was hard to blame them,

330
00:23:45,222 --> 00:23:47,799
for weekends, like life, are short.

331
00:23:48,968 --> 00:23:51,879
The next morning,
I waited for them to come down

332
00:23:51,979 --> 00:23:53,930
and the next afternoon.

333
00:23:56,726 --> 00:23:59,186
They didn't appear the whole day.

334
00:24:04,567 --> 00:24:05,859
Nor the morning after.

335
00:24:22,251 --> 00:24:24,161
I no longer felt sentimental.

336
00:24:24,261 --> 00:24:26,721
The weekend was nearly over,
and I could hardly expect providence

337
00:24:26,821 --> 00:24:30,125
to offer me
so promising a chance again.

338
00:24:30,225 --> 00:24:32,169
I was in a state of desperation

339
00:24:32,269 --> 00:24:35,472
and I followed them,
hoping for I knew not what.

340
00:24:36,599 --> 00:24:40,636
I had the poison with me, but they
hadn't even taken a picnic basket.

341
00:24:40,736 --> 00:24:44,398
It was possible, however, that they might
stop somewhere for refreshment.

342
00:24:47,235 --> 00:24:50,187
They did stop shortly afterwards,

343
00:24:50,287 --> 00:24:52,239
but not for that.

344
00:24:53,449 --> 00:24:56,910
Judging by past experience,
they would be there for hours.

345
00:25:17,223 --> 00:25:19,049
The rest followed automatically.

346
00:25:19,149 --> 00:25:22,511
I had fortunately learned to swim
at the Clapham Municipal Baths

347
00:25:22,611 --> 00:25:25,564
though I never had occasion
to try it underwater.

348
00:25:26,732 --> 00:25:29,518
I had no wish to surface
under their noses,

349
00:25:29,618 --> 00:25:32,821
though I doubt if they would have
noticed me even if I had.

350
00:25:38,244 --> 00:25:40,203
It was beautifully timed.

351
00:26:14,739 --> 00:26:16,615
I was sorry about the girl,

352
00:26:16,741 --> 00:26:19,568
but found some relief in the reflection
that she had presumably,

353
00:26:19,668 --> 00:26:23,288
during the weekend, already undergone
a fate worse than death.

354
00:26:32,757 --> 00:26:36,635
I decided to defer consideration
of where and how I should next strike

355
00:26:36,761 --> 00:26:39,596
until my nerves
were thoroughly restored.

356
00:26:40,181 --> 00:26:42,257
It must be remembered
that I was very young

357
00:26:42,357 --> 00:26:45,685
and, furthermore,
I am not naturally callous.

358
00:26:47,772 --> 00:26:50,106
I suddenly conceived a brilliant idea.

359
00:26:51,817 --> 00:26:56,855
I would write a carefully phrased letter
of condolence to old Ascoyne D'Ascoyne.

360
00:26:56,955 --> 00:27:01,109
It would be an agreeable feeling of revenge
for his cruelty to Mama.

361
00:27:01,209 --> 00:27:04,242
And, further, it had not failed to occur to me
that there was, at the moment,

362
00:27:04,342 --> 00:27:06,373
a vacancy in the banking house.

363
00:27:07,458 --> 00:27:10,001
Ascoyne D'Ascoyne duly rose to the bait.

364
00:27:12,004 --> 00:27:14,464
Please be seated, Mr Mazzini.

365
00:27:18,803 --> 00:27:20,804
How do you do?

366
00:27:26,477 --> 00:27:28,395
My late son.

367
00:27:32,817 --> 00:27:34,150
A great loss.

368
00:27:34,652 --> 00:27:36,361
He was young and foolish

369
00:27:36,487 --> 00:27:40,031
but I believe had he been spared
until his maturity...

370
00:27:40,157 --> 00:27:43,798
It was my consciousness of that which led me
to presume to tender you my sympathy.

371
00:27:43,898 --> 00:27:45,967
I am glad that you did so.

372
00:27:46,067 --> 00:27:50,333
A loss so tragic serves to put lesser matters
in their proper perspective.

373
00:27:51,377 --> 00:27:53,878
If I remember rightly, Mr Mazzini,

374
00:27:54,005 --> 00:27:58,312
some years ago
I received a communication

375
00:27:58,412 --> 00:28:00,343
from your mother.

376
00:28:00,845 --> 00:28:02,220
My late mother.

377
00:28:09,937 --> 00:28:12,514
Hello, Louis.
You look very pleased with yourself.

378
00:28:12,614 --> 00:28:14,766
- So do you.
- I have news.

379
00:28:14,866 --> 00:28:16,330
- So have I.
- What is it?

380
00:28:16,430 --> 00:28:17,436
No, yours first.

381
00:28:17,536 --> 00:28:21,523
Lionel and I have fixed a date
for our wedding, in two months' time.

382
00:28:21,623 --> 00:28:23,191
My congratulations.

383
00:28:23,291 --> 00:28:26,445
No, I should congratulate him.
I compliment you.

384
00:28:26,545 --> 00:28:29,372
- Now yours.
- Nothing as exciting as yours.

385
00:28:30,374 --> 00:28:32,934
I went today to see Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne,
my cousin, you know.

386
00:28:33,628 --> 00:28:35,683
He has a private banking house
in the city.

387
00:28:35,783 --> 00:28:38,373
He offered me employment at once
at £5 a week

388
00:28:38,473 --> 00:28:40,800
with excellent prospects
for promotion.

389
00:28:42,053 --> 00:28:45,805
Louis, I'm so glad for you.

390
00:28:47,433 --> 00:28:51,061
- Louis, do you remember?
- What?

391
00:28:51,562 --> 00:28:53,980
Once, in this room,

392
00:28:55,232 --> 00:28:57,317
after my party...

393
00:28:57,902 --> 00:29:00,312
- I kissed you.
- Yes.

394
00:29:00,412 --> 00:29:02,280
And you were horrible to me.

395
00:29:02,406 --> 00:29:03,406
Yes.

396
00:29:04,575 --> 00:29:08,161
I made fun about you
being related to the D'Ascoynes.

397
00:29:09,413 --> 00:29:11,323
I'm sorry.

398
00:29:11,423 --> 00:29:12,991
You'll take it more seriously now?

399
00:29:13,091 --> 00:29:14,091
Yes.

400
00:29:15,628 --> 00:29:17,671
Louis, kiss me,

401
00:29:18,923 --> 00:29:21,257
to show you've forgiven me.

402
00:29:24,762 --> 00:29:28,340
No, it would be wrong.
You're pledged to Lionel.

403
00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:31,238
I behaved like a cad that night.

404
00:29:31,338 --> 00:29:34,270
I like you when you behave
like a cad.

405
00:29:41,153 --> 00:29:44,356
You're a person who must dance
through life, Sibella,

406
00:29:44,456 --> 00:29:47,158
and I hope Lionel won't tread
on your feet too often.

407
00:29:51,789 --> 00:29:54,095
My new employment
was humble enough

408
00:29:54,195 --> 00:29:57,794
but I had to test the rungs of the ladder
before I could climb it.

409
00:30:04,218 --> 00:30:07,178
That's very nice.

410
00:30:07,638 --> 00:30:11,683
The next candidate for removal
seemed to be young Henry D'Ascoyne,

411
00:30:11,809 --> 00:30:14,386
24 years old, recently married,

412
00:30:14,486 --> 00:30:16,638
as yet, without issue.

413
00:30:16,738 --> 00:30:19,691
I had quite an accumulation by now
of D'Ascoyne data

414
00:30:19,817 --> 00:30:22,527
culled from newspapers and periodicals,

415
00:30:22,653 --> 00:30:25,530
and I looked through it
for a possible approach to Henry.

416
00:30:25,656 --> 00:30:27,482
I found one.

417
00:30:27,582 --> 00:30:30,631
I bought the necessary equipment,
second hand,

418
00:30:30,731 --> 00:30:33,572
and bicycled down
the following weekend.

419
00:30:33,672 --> 00:30:36,971
I had studied a couple of photographic
manuals during the week,

420
00:30:37,071 --> 00:30:39,745
and found that, in practice,
the mysteries of the camera

421
00:30:39,845 --> 00:30:42,547
demand a little more
than ordinary intelligence,

422
00:30:42,673 --> 00:30:46,418
plus the ability to judge
the subject upside-down.

423
00:30:46,518 --> 00:30:49,846
It was thus, indeed,
that I first saw Henry D'Ascoyne.

424
00:31:04,945 --> 00:31:08,440
My method of approach proved
an instantaneous success.

425
00:31:08,540 --> 00:31:11,943
Excuse me.
Isn't that a Thornton Pickard?

426
00:31:12,043 --> 00:31:14,245
Yes. Are you a photographer?

427
00:31:14,371 --> 00:31:16,615
Dabble in it. Got a Sanger Shepherd.

428
00:31:16,715 --> 00:31:18,533
- A Sanger Shepherd?
- Nice little camera.

429
00:31:18,633 --> 00:31:21,286
Focal plane shutter,
rapid rectilinear and all that.

430
00:31:21,386 --> 00:31:24,122
Look here. Why not come up
to my house and I'll show it to you?

431
00:31:24,222 --> 00:31:26,382
Well, I'd be most interested.

432
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:31,054
- My name's D'Ascoyne, by the way.
- Mine is Mazzini.

433
00:31:31,806 --> 00:31:34,265
He seemed a very pleasant fellow

434
00:31:34,391 --> 00:31:36,935
and I regretted that our acquaintanceship
must be so short.

435
00:31:38,103 --> 00:31:40,772
Had one of the potting sheds
fixed up as a darkroom.

436
00:31:40,898 --> 00:31:43,088
Couldn't have suited better
if it had been built for it.

437
00:31:43,188 --> 00:31:44,901
Had the equipment
sent down from town.

438
00:31:45,402 --> 00:31:48,709
And I must say the results
have been absolutely top-hole.

439
00:31:48,809 --> 00:31:52,867
I'll show you some quarter-plates
I've taken about the village.

440
00:31:54,745 --> 00:31:58,081
There we are.
Absolutely lightproof, except for this.

441
00:31:58,207 --> 00:32:02,919
Everything to hand, developing dishes here,
toning bath here, whole-plate enlarger.

442
00:32:03,045 --> 00:32:05,421
- Perfect.
- Not too bad, is it?

443
00:32:06,465 --> 00:32:09,049
Talking of the village, by the by,
I don't know if you're thinking

444
00:32:09,149 --> 00:32:11,857
of sending any of your efforts here
to some periodical,

445
00:32:11,957 --> 00:32:13,930
but there's just one thing.

446
00:32:15,391 --> 00:32:17,863
I'm sure you're a good fellow,
or I wouldn't like to ask.

447
00:32:17,963 --> 00:32:19,763
Ask what?

448
00:32:20,007 --> 00:32:23,606
I'd be most grateful if you'd keep back
that last plate you exposed.

449
00:32:24,275 --> 00:32:26,943
- The inn? But it was delightful.
- Yes.

450
00:32:27,570 --> 00:32:30,584
The fact is, my wife has views
about such places,

451
00:32:30,684 --> 00:32:32,753
so I never go in them,
you understand?

452
00:32:32,853 --> 00:32:34,880
Naturally, I wouldn't dream
of embarrassing you.

453
00:32:34,980 --> 00:32:38,496
I knew you were a good fellow.
Suppose we drink on it?

454
00:32:40,791 --> 00:32:43,931
Unless you have views yourself,
of course.

455
00:32:44,031 --> 00:32:45,628
- None.
- Splendid.

456
00:32:46,130 --> 00:32:48,965
What shall it be?
Sherry? Whisky?

457
00:32:52,136 --> 00:32:54,262
I think a small developer.

458
00:32:55,598 --> 00:32:58,946
The mental picture of his wife
that I had formed from Henry's words

459
00:32:59,046 --> 00:33:02,783
left me unprepared for the charm
of the woman I was to meet.

460
00:33:02,883 --> 00:33:06,287
She was as tall and slender as a lily
and as beautiful.

461
00:33:06,387 --> 00:33:09,193
My dear, this is Mr Mazzini.
He has a Thornton Pickard.

462
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:11,487
Mr Mazzini, my wife.

463
00:33:12,197 --> 00:33:14,657
I'm no photographer myself,
Mr Mazzini,

464
00:33:14,783 --> 00:33:17,923
but I share my husband's pleasure
in welcoming a fellow enthusiast.

465
00:33:18,023 --> 00:33:20,872
- You'll take some sherry?
- Well, thank you, I...

466
00:33:26,503 --> 00:33:30,048
My husband and I never touch alcohol,
but we see no reason, on that account

467
00:33:30,174 --> 00:33:32,342
to enforce our views on our guests.

468
00:33:32,468 --> 00:33:33,772
Glass of sherry, Harwood.

469
00:33:33,872 --> 00:33:36,442
I have some printing frames
out in the sun.

470
00:33:36,542 --> 00:33:38,806
If you don't mind,
I'll just run out and see to them.

471
00:33:40,517 --> 00:33:43,019
Have you been in the neighbourhood long,
Mr Mazzini?

472
00:33:43,145 --> 00:33:44,854
A few hours only.

473
00:33:44,980 --> 00:33:46,994
I was cycling through the village

474
00:33:47,094 --> 00:33:49,692
and felt compelled to stop
and make a study or two of the inn.

475
00:33:49,818 --> 00:33:52,695
- It looked so charming.
- It does look charming.

476
00:33:53,489 --> 00:33:54,960
But I'm afraid it's, by no means,

477
00:33:55,060 --> 00:33:57,575
an influence for good
in the lives of our people here.

478
00:33:57,701 --> 00:33:59,381
The landlord
is a former coachman of ours.

479
00:33:59,495 --> 00:34:02,705
I have spoken to him several times about
the amount of drinking that goes on there

480
00:34:02,805 --> 00:34:04,749
but he continues to allow it.

481
00:34:04,875 --> 00:34:07,014
It is, after all, I suppose, his livelihood.

482
00:34:07,114 --> 00:34:09,276
I do not consider he has the right
to make a livelihood

483
00:34:09,376 --> 00:34:11,673
by exploiting the weaknesses
of his fellow men.

484
00:34:12,925 --> 00:34:15,218
Put as you put it,
it does sound deplorable.

485
00:34:15,344 --> 00:34:18,012
It is deplorable.
Will you excuse me a moment?

486
00:34:18,931 --> 00:34:20,056
Harwood.

487
00:34:21,016 --> 00:34:23,434
I could well understand
Henry's visits to the village inn

488
00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:26,033
and his stock of refreshments
in the darkroom.

489
00:34:26,133 --> 00:34:29,357
Mrs D'Ascoyne was beautiful,
but what a prig she was.

490
00:34:30,067 --> 00:34:33,277
I wondered how
to ingratiate myself with her,

491
00:34:33,404 --> 00:34:36,710
and decided to attack on her own ground
and with her own weapons.

492
00:34:36,810 --> 00:34:40,214
I'm afraid we can offer you
only a simple luncheon, Mr Mazzini.

493
00:34:40,314 --> 00:34:43,621
You are most kind,
but I feel I should not intrude.

494
00:34:43,747 --> 00:34:46,791
- It is no intrusion.
- I'm afraid it is.

495
00:34:48,252 --> 00:34:51,087
- May I explain?
- Please do.

496
00:34:54,717 --> 00:34:57,093
It was only when your husband
told me his name

497
00:34:57,219 --> 00:35:02,265
that I realised that I'd come by chance
into the most embarrassing situation.

498
00:35:02,391 --> 00:35:05,601
My mother was a member
of the D'Ascoyne family.

499
00:35:05,728 --> 00:35:08,575
She married,
as they thought, beneath her.

500
00:35:08,675 --> 00:35:11,203
And from that day,
they refused to recognise her

501
00:35:11,303 --> 00:35:13,443
or my existence.

502
00:35:14,111 --> 00:35:18,823
I feel that, although in the circumstances
you might hesitate to say so to my face,

503
00:35:18,949 --> 00:35:22,785
you and your husband would prefer
not to receive me at your table.

504
00:35:22,911 --> 00:35:26,427
Perhaps you would be good enough
to explain matters to your husband for me.

505
00:35:26,527 --> 00:35:29,263
I shall, naturally,
leave the neighbourhood at once.

506
00:35:29,363 --> 00:35:31,794
Mr Mazzini, please sit down.

507
00:35:32,963 --> 00:35:33,963
Oh.

508
00:35:36,341 --> 00:35:39,135
You have exhibited
the most delicate feelings.

509
00:35:39,678 --> 00:35:42,568
I know nothing of the history
to which you refer,

510
00:35:42,668 --> 00:35:45,446
but I have often felt that the attitude
of my husband's family

511
00:35:45,546 --> 00:35:47,573
has failed to move with the times,

512
00:35:47,673 --> 00:35:50,075
that they think too much
of the rights of nobility

513
00:35:50,175 --> 00:35:52,411
and too little of its duties.

514
00:35:52,511 --> 00:35:56,957
The very honesty of your behaviour
would appear to me to prove them wrong.

515
00:35:57,057 --> 00:36:00,198
Was Lord Tennyson far from the mark
when he wrote,

516
00:36:00,324 --> 00:36:02,629
"Kind hearts are more than coronets

517
00:36:02,729 --> 00:36:05,328
"and simple faith than Norman blood"?

518
00:36:05,829 --> 00:36:07,371
I hope you will stay to luncheon.

519
00:36:08,165 --> 00:36:12,335
Oh, in that case,
I shall be delighted and honoured.

520
00:36:12,544 --> 00:36:15,671
My impersonation
of a man of sterling character

521
00:36:15,798 --> 00:36:17,507
was such a resounding success

522
00:36:17,633 --> 00:36:22,011
that Mrs D'Ascoyne invited me to spend
the following Saturday-to-Monday with them.

523
00:36:24,014 --> 00:36:27,821
When I returned to the somewhat
contrasting atmosphere of Clapham,

524
00:36:27,921 --> 00:36:31,521
I found the house in a whirl with preparation
for Sibella's wedding to Lionel

525
00:36:31,647 --> 00:36:33,952
which was to take place next day.

526
00:36:34,052 --> 00:36:37,068
Before going to bed that evening,
I wandered into the old nursery

527
00:36:37,194 --> 00:36:39,153
to fetch a book I'd left there.

528
00:36:48,330 --> 00:36:50,081
Penny for them.

529
00:36:50,207 --> 00:36:52,375
Oh, hello, Louis.

530
00:36:55,420 --> 00:36:58,270
You're not looking as radiantly happy
as young females in your situation

531
00:36:58,370 --> 00:36:59,382
are supposed to look.

532
00:36:59,508 --> 00:37:02,885
I was just thinking of all the fun
we've had in this room.

533
00:37:03,011 --> 00:37:05,930
- You and I and Graham.
- And Lionel.

534
00:37:06,723 --> 00:37:08,891
Yes, and Lionel.

535
00:37:11,562 --> 00:37:15,369
Oh, Louis,
I don't want to marry Lionel!

536
00:37:15,469 --> 00:37:17,775
- Why not?
- He's so dull!

537
00:37:19,361 --> 00:37:22,334
I must admit he exhibits the most
extraordinary capacity for middle age

538
00:37:22,434 --> 00:37:25,950
that I've ever encountered
in a young man of 24.

539
00:37:26,076 --> 00:37:29,675
However, it's a bit late in the day
to think of that, isn't it?

540
00:37:29,775 --> 00:37:33,053
I know. That only makes it worse.

541
00:37:33,153 --> 00:37:36,085
- I always told you you should marry me.
- I know.

542
00:37:37,462 --> 00:37:39,922
That makes it worse too.

543
00:37:54,438 --> 00:37:57,607
You look more lovely today
than I've ever seen you.

544
00:38:01,069 --> 00:38:04,280
You're a lucky man, Lionel.
Take my word for it.

545
00:38:09,161 --> 00:38:12,121
I could not helo feeling
that even Sibella's capacity for lying

546
00:38:12,247 --> 00:38:14,790
was going to be taxed to the utmost.

547
00:38:14,917 --> 00:38:17,627
Time had brought me revenge on Lionel.

548
00:38:18,295 --> 00:38:20,225
And as the Italian proverb says,

549
00:38:20,325 --> 00:38:24,467
"Revenge is a dish which people of taste
prefer to eat cold."

550
00:38:27,638 --> 00:38:30,306
The following Saturday I left London
in the middle of the night

551
00:38:30,432 --> 00:38:32,475
and reached Henry's house just before dawn.

552
00:38:37,022 --> 00:38:39,411
It took a mere three minutes
to substitute petrol

553
00:38:39,511 --> 00:38:42,276
for the paraffin in the darkroom lamp.

554
00:38:42,653 --> 00:38:45,363
And I then repaired to a meadow
and took a few hours' sleep

555
00:38:45,489 --> 00:38:48,369
while awaiting the hour at which
I could reasonably arrive at the house.

556
00:38:50,619 --> 00:38:53,287
The day dragged by
in an agony of suspense for me.

557
00:38:53,705 --> 00:38:56,666
Henry took photograph after photograph,

558
00:38:56,792 --> 00:39:00,711
but seemed to have no urge whatever
to follow it up with a visit to the darkroom.

559
00:39:04,508 --> 00:39:05,716
Bravo, Edith!

560
00:39:06,134 --> 00:39:10,054
I began to fear
that he had suddenly taken the pledge.

561
00:39:11,056 --> 00:39:14,684
I think I'll just go and develop these
before tea. Care to come?

562
00:39:14,810 --> 00:39:17,520
I would, indeed, but I have a slight headache.
The sun, I think.

563
00:39:17,646 --> 00:39:20,064
And I'm afraid the chemicals
wouldn't improve it.

564
00:39:20,190 --> 00:39:22,621
Mr Mazzini and I will have tea
under the tulip tree.

565
00:39:22,721 --> 00:39:24,881
I've always found that
most beneficial for a headache.

566
00:39:25,362 --> 00:39:27,905
I'm afraid Henry
will think me a poor enthusiast.

567
00:39:28,031 --> 00:39:31,338
I sometimes think that he is too great a one.

568
00:39:31,438 --> 00:39:33,327
In a way, I am to blame for it.

569
00:39:33,745 --> 00:39:36,247
Before we were married, he had few interests.

570
00:39:36,373 --> 00:39:38,693
He used to spend the greater part
of each day at his club.

571
00:39:40,043 --> 00:39:41,436
I felt that such a life was unhealthy

572
00:39:41,536 --> 00:39:44,213
and persuaded him to come
and live here in the country.

573
00:39:45,382 --> 00:39:47,121
I hoped
that perhaps he would interest himself

574
00:39:47,221 --> 00:39:50,052
in the welfare of our tenantry, as I do.

575
00:39:50,345 --> 00:39:52,585
But he became interested in photography
on our honeymoon

576
00:39:53,015 --> 00:39:57,184
and since then it has become
the major preoccupation of his life.

577
00:39:58,186 --> 00:40:00,438
- Mr Mazzini...
- Yes?

578
00:40:00,564 --> 00:40:03,124
I hope you will forgive my speaking to you
on a personal matter,

579
00:40:03,775 --> 00:40:06,393
but it worries me that Henry
should spend so much time on his hobby

580
00:40:06,493 --> 00:40:08,551
that he has little left
for any more useful activity.

581
00:40:09,406 --> 00:40:11,503
Am I right to let him go on like this?

582
00:40:11,603 --> 00:40:14,381
I could hardly point out
that Henry now had no time left

583
00:40:14,481 --> 00:40:16,216
for any kind of activity,

584
00:40:16,316 --> 00:40:18,914
so I continued to discuss his future.

585
00:40:19,041 --> 00:40:21,161
He has never shown any wish
for a career in politics?

586
00:40:21,918 --> 00:40:24,516
- None.
- Nor any other ambitions?

587
00:40:24,616 --> 00:40:28,090
One only. To win a prize
at the Salon Photography in Brussels.

588
00:40:29,468 --> 00:40:30,968
What is it?

589
00:40:31,094 --> 00:40:34,930
Oh, they're just burning some leaves
at the bottom of the garden.

590
00:40:35,057 --> 00:40:37,808
But they can't be at this time of year.

591
00:40:39,936 --> 00:40:42,104
- Henry!
- No. You stay here.

592
00:40:42,773 --> 00:40:44,482
Needless to say, I was too late.

593
00:40:46,276 --> 00:40:49,445
The funeral service was held
in the village church at Chalfont,

594
00:40:49,571 --> 00:40:52,406
prior to interment in the family vault.

595
00:40:53,784 --> 00:40:56,327
Mrs D'Ascoyne, who had discerned in me

596
00:40:56,453 --> 00:40:59,663
a man of delicate sensibility
and high purpose

597
00:40:59,790 --> 00:41:02,625
asked me to accompany her
on the cross-country journey.

598
00:41:03,460 --> 00:41:05,432
"To everything there is a season

599
00:41:05,532 --> 00:41:09,465
"and a time to every purpose
under the heaven.

600
00:41:10,342 --> 00:41:13,969
"A time to be born, and a time to die."

601
00:41:14,346 --> 00:41:16,735
The occasion was interesting,
in that it provided me

602
00:41:16,835 --> 00:41:19,975
with my first sight
of the D'Ascoynes en masse.

603
00:41:20,811 --> 00:41:23,354
Interesting and somewhat depressing

604
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:26,649
for it emphasised how far I had yet to travel.

605
00:41:27,109 --> 00:41:28,943
There was the Duke.

606
00:41:32,656 --> 00:41:35,616
There was my employer,
Lord Ascoyne D'Ascoyne.

607
00:41:37,619 --> 00:41:40,496
There was Admiral Lord Horatio D'Ascoyne.

608
00:41:42,999 --> 00:41:46,168
There was General Lord Rufus D'Ascoyne.

609
00:41:49,172 --> 00:41:52,049
There was Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne.

610
00:41:56,138 --> 00:41:59,682
And in the pulpit,
talking interminable nonsense

611
00:41:59,808 --> 00:42:01,892
the Reverend Lord Henry D'Ascoyne.

612
00:42:02,018 --> 00:42:03,811
The life cut short

613
00:42:04,563 --> 00:42:09,358
was one rich in achievement and promise

614
00:42:09,818 --> 00:42:12,236
of service to humanity.

615
00:42:12,362 --> 00:42:14,793
The D'Ascoynes
certainly appeared to have accorded

616
00:42:14,893 --> 00:42:17,003
with the tradition of the landed gentry

617
00:42:17,103 --> 00:42:20,369
and sent the fool of the family
into the church.

618
00:42:21,872 --> 00:42:24,373
Well, goodbye, my dear.

619
00:42:25,250 --> 00:42:27,514
- Goodbye.
- No fretting now.

620
00:42:27,614 --> 00:42:30,713
After all, one thing to be said,
we all have to come to it.

621
00:42:31,715 --> 00:42:36,022
Great thing, you know, family vault like ours.
Constant reminder of one's heritage.

622
00:42:36,122 --> 00:42:38,262
Now, take this new cremation nonsense.

623
00:42:38,388 --> 00:42:41,653
Who wants to see his nearest and dearest
put in an incinerator?

624
00:42:41,753 --> 00:42:44,727
I think, sir, Mrs D'Ascoyne should leave.
The wind is turning cold.

625
00:42:44,853 --> 00:42:47,188
As Mrs D'Ascoyne thinks best.

626
00:42:48,773 --> 00:42:51,442
Glad we had Cousin Henry
to take the service.

627
00:42:51,568 --> 00:42:55,070
Boring old ass,
but it keeps the thing in the family.

628
00:42:55,572 --> 00:42:57,573
People getting strange ideas these days.

629
00:42:57,699 --> 00:42:59,742
Had a fellow write to me not so long ago,

630
00:42:59,868 --> 00:43:03,008
wanted to bury his mother here
from Tooting or somewhere.

631
00:43:03,108 --> 00:43:05,915
Start letting strangers in,
the place will be full up.

632
00:43:06,041 --> 00:43:07,791
No room for us, eh?

633
00:43:08,752 --> 00:43:11,391
I privately promised him
that I would make it my business

634
00:43:11,491 --> 00:43:13,797
to see there was room for him.

635
00:43:18,887 --> 00:43:21,860
Uncle Ethelred is not the most tactful of men.

636
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:24,141
I could gladly have struck him.

637
00:43:24,267 --> 00:43:27,061
Thank you for intervening when you did.

638
00:43:29,606 --> 00:43:31,774
The house will be so empty

639
00:43:32,275 --> 00:43:34,944
and yet he will be in it everywhere.

640
00:43:36,238 --> 00:43:39,252
I find the thought of life there hard to face.

641
00:43:39,352 --> 00:43:41,617
Must you stay there? A new environment...

642
00:43:42,285 --> 00:43:43,685
I must,

643
00:43:43,954 --> 00:43:45,788
for one reason if no other.

644
00:43:45,914 --> 00:43:49,625
They would say I was running away,
that there was truth in all these rumours.

645
00:43:49,751 --> 00:43:52,461
- Rumours?
- In the village.

646
00:43:53,255 --> 00:43:55,089
There's been gossip.

647
00:43:55,632 --> 00:43:58,634
They say that Henry drank in secret.

648
00:44:00,303 --> 00:44:02,463
They even say that
that was the cause of the accident.

649
00:44:03,139 --> 00:44:06,684
I'm sure that Henry would never have
professed one thing and practised another.

650
00:44:08,311 --> 00:44:09,979
I, too, am sure.

651
00:44:11,773 --> 00:44:13,774
Otherwise, I think I could not survive.

652
00:44:14,317 --> 00:44:17,611
We have a long way to go.
Try to sleep a little.

653
00:44:18,822 --> 00:44:20,281
Sleep does not come easily.

654
00:44:20,824 --> 00:44:22,199
Please try.

655
00:44:23,451 --> 00:44:24,785
Allow me.

656
00:44:28,665 --> 00:44:30,428
I was conscious that a new obsession

657
00:44:30,528 --> 00:44:34,670
was about to join the one that I should wear
the coronet of the duke of Chalfont,

658
00:44:35,338 --> 00:44:38,841
that Edith D'Ascoyne should wear that
of the duchess beside me.

659
00:44:39,801 --> 00:44:42,886
Her dignity of bearing
at the worst moments of her grief

660
00:44:43,013 --> 00:44:45,182
had impressed me with the feeling
that here was a woman

661
00:44:45,282 --> 00:44:47,725
whose quality matched her beauty.

662
00:44:48,351 --> 00:44:50,561
I resolved to embark upon her courtship

663
00:44:50,687 --> 00:44:54,356
as soon as a decent period of mourning
should have elapsed.

664
00:44:54,691 --> 00:44:59,028
Sibella? Yes, Sibella was pretty enough
in her suburban way.

665
00:44:59,696 --> 00:45:01,821
And, indeed, there was no reason
why we shouldn't continue

666
00:45:01,921 --> 00:45:03,741
to meet on friendly terms.

667
00:45:03,867 --> 00:45:07,244
But her face would have looked
rather out of place under a coronet.

668
00:45:10,206 --> 00:45:13,208
That, sir, is a list of bills
due for redemption this week.

669
00:45:13,335 --> 00:45:15,640
I've marked in red those asking for renewal.

670
00:45:15,740 --> 00:45:19,811
Aitcheson, yes.
Pole and Carter, I suppose so.

671
00:45:19,911 --> 00:45:22,147
Knollis Limited, oh, no.

672
00:45:22,247 --> 00:45:24,190
Redbank and Holland...

673
00:45:24,290 --> 00:45:26,388
You have a friend there, have you not?

674
00:45:26,514 --> 00:45:29,099
An acquaintance. I know Lionel Holland.

675
00:45:29,225 --> 00:45:31,560
Would you say that he's sound?

676
00:45:32,062 --> 00:45:33,437
I wouldn't say not, sir.

677
00:45:33,563 --> 00:45:35,189
Hmm. Thank you.

678
00:45:40,737 --> 00:45:43,113
- Mazzini.
- Yes, sir?

679
00:45:43,907 --> 00:45:47,005
I've watched your progress here
with great care

680
00:45:47,105 --> 00:45:50,383
and have been gratified to note
that it has fully justified my judgement

681
00:45:50,483 --> 00:45:52,748
in inviting you into the firm.

682
00:45:52,874 --> 00:45:57,294
In view of that, and in order that
you may be able to adopt a style of living

683
00:45:57,420 --> 00:46:00,255
befitting a member of the D'Ascoyne family,

684
00:46:00,382 --> 00:46:03,688
I have decided
to appoint you my private secretary

685
00:46:03,788 --> 00:46:06,762
at a salary of £500 per annum.

686
00:46:07,597 --> 00:46:10,862
- Sir, I cannot begin to...
- Oh, please do not try.

687
00:46:10,962 --> 00:46:14,603
I had intended
that my son should occupy the position.

688
00:46:15,438 --> 00:46:19,371
I can only say that I will try
to make my occupancy of it

689
00:46:19,471 --> 00:46:21,318
worthy of his memory.

690
00:46:25,240 --> 00:46:26,949
I left the Halworths' house

691
00:46:27,075 --> 00:46:29,827
and took a bachelor apartment in St James's.

692
00:46:29,953 --> 00:46:32,592
Clapham no longer held Sibella's presence
to compensate me

693
00:46:32,692 --> 00:46:35,332
for the tedious journey
between the suburbs and the city.

694
00:46:37,627 --> 00:46:42,005
Anyhow, it would be vastly more convenient
for her to visit me here.

695
00:46:54,978 --> 00:46:58,522
Now, let me have a look
at the beautiful Mrs Holland.

696
00:46:58,648 --> 00:47:01,817
- No, I think I prefer Miss Halworth.
- So do I.

697
00:47:02,986 --> 00:47:06,321
Louis, it's very wrong of me to visit you here.

698
00:47:06,448 --> 00:47:09,533
- Why?
- A married woman calling on a bachelor?

699
00:47:10,869 --> 00:47:12,703
A dangerous bachelor

700
00:47:13,663 --> 00:47:15,330
in his apartment.

701
00:47:15,457 --> 00:47:16,957
I? Dangerous?

702
00:47:19,669 --> 00:47:22,379
These things only become wrong
when people know about them.

703
00:47:22,505 --> 00:47:25,382
This is a very discreet apartment.
That's why I chose it.

704
00:47:25,508 --> 00:47:28,719
So that young women
could call on you in safety?

705
00:47:30,013 --> 00:47:32,514
So that one young woman could.

706
00:47:33,558 --> 00:47:35,851
How did you know she'd want to?

707
00:47:35,977 --> 00:47:37,227
I hoped.

708
00:47:41,149 --> 00:47:44,151
- How did you enjoy your honeymoon?
- Not at all.

709
00:47:45,862 --> 00:47:47,237
Not at all?

710
00:47:48,239 --> 00:47:49,698
Not at all.

711
00:47:51,993 --> 00:47:54,244
- And how was Italy?
- Oh, impossible!

712
00:47:54,746 --> 00:47:57,969
Every time I wanted to go shopping,
Lionel dragged me off to a church

713
00:47:58,069 --> 00:47:59,804
or picture gallery.

714
00:47:59,904 --> 00:48:03,378
- Said he wanted to improve his mind.
- He has room to do so.

715
00:48:04,047 --> 00:48:07,645
I should reprove you
for saying unkind things about him

716
00:48:07,745 --> 00:48:09,218
but I can't.

717
00:48:10,845 --> 00:48:15,320
Louis, I think I've married
the most boring man in London.

718
00:48:15,420 --> 00:48:17,518
- In England.
- In Europe!

719
00:48:21,231 --> 00:48:24,858
Oh, the Italian men are so handsome,

720
00:48:25,401 --> 00:48:28,904
but I could never get away
from Lionel for a moment.

721
00:48:30,198 --> 00:48:32,908
But I was forgetting, you're Italian.

722
00:48:33,368 --> 00:48:34,368
Half.

723
00:48:40,208 --> 00:48:41,542
Louis...

724
00:48:42,794 --> 00:48:45,587
I can speak frankly to you?

725
00:48:47,382 --> 00:48:49,591
Well, if not to me, to whom?

726
00:48:50,426 --> 00:48:52,052
I shall go mad.

727
00:48:52,554 --> 00:48:55,597
Already when he touches me,
I want to scream.

728
00:49:10,446 --> 00:49:12,114
What am I doing?

729
00:49:13,950 --> 00:49:15,588
You know very well.

730
00:49:15,688 --> 00:49:17,786
You're playing with fire.

731
00:49:18,288 --> 00:49:20,163
At least it warms me.

732
00:49:21,666 --> 00:49:23,083
I must go.

733
00:49:25,295 --> 00:49:27,433
Lionel's dining at home tonight.

734
00:49:27,533 --> 00:49:29,339
Where is Lionel dining tomorrow night?

735
00:49:29,465 --> 00:49:31,967
With some business acquaintances.

736
00:49:32,677 --> 00:49:35,345
And where are you dining tomorrow night?

737
00:49:35,471 --> 00:49:36,471
Here?

738
00:49:37,098 --> 00:49:38,098
Here.

739
00:49:45,106 --> 00:49:47,078
Poor little imprisoned bird.

740
00:49:47,178 --> 00:49:51,124
Well, she was welcome to come
and flutter her wings with me.

741
00:49:51,224 --> 00:49:53,793
I could think of many more
disagreeable ways of killing time

742
00:49:53,893 --> 00:49:55,753
pending the arrival of the moment

743
00:49:55,853 --> 00:49:57,868
when the conventional decencies
would permit me

744
00:49:57,994 --> 00:50:00,370
to make my declaration to Edith.

745
00:50:01,372 --> 00:50:04,971
As to the other undertaking,
I had not forgotten or forgiven

746
00:50:05,071 --> 00:50:07,669
the boredom of the sermon
at young Henry's funeral

747
00:50:08,046 --> 00:50:11,102
and I decided to promote
the Reverend Lord Henry D'Ascoyne

748
00:50:11,202 --> 00:50:12,716
to next place on the list.

749
00:50:13,301 --> 00:50:17,442
I therefore assumed the garb and character
of a colonial bishop

750
00:50:17,542 --> 00:50:22,684
spending his vacation making a collection
of brass rubbings from country churches.

751
00:50:24,854 --> 00:50:26,813
Good evening, my lord.

752
00:50:28,024 --> 00:50:29,660
It was, for a moment,
a shock to be addressed

753
00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:32,665
by my ecclesiastical title,
but I recovered quickly.

754
00:50:32,765 --> 00:50:37,240
Good evening. I was just taking a rubbing
of this most interesting brass.

755
00:50:37,533 --> 00:50:40,577
An ancestress of my dear late wife.

756
00:50:41,371 --> 00:50:43,843
Allow me to introduce myself.

757
00:50:43,943 --> 00:50:47,847
Henry D'Ascoyne, rector of this parish.

758
00:50:47,947 --> 00:50:51,338
Septimus Wilkinson, bishop of Matabeleland.

759
00:50:52,757 --> 00:50:57,315
I was spending my vacation taking a cycling
tour around your beautiful country churches.

760
00:50:57,415 --> 00:51:01,682
- Ah! Have you noticed our clerestory?
- Cle...

761
00:51:04,060 --> 00:51:05,894
Ah, exquisite!

762
00:51:06,020 --> 00:51:08,563
- The corbels are very fine.
- Hmm.

763
00:51:09,399 --> 00:51:13,498
Perhaps Your Lordship would permit me
to show you one or two other things

764
00:51:13,598 --> 00:51:15,208
in which we take a pride.

765
00:51:15,308 --> 00:51:17,406
I should be most interested.

766
00:51:17,532 --> 00:51:20,200
Our most notable features, of course,

767
00:51:20,576 --> 00:51:23,245
are the D'Ascoyne memorials.

768
00:51:23,913 --> 00:51:26,415
Every member of the family

769
00:51:26,874 --> 00:51:30,585
to a cadet branch
of which I have the honour to belong

770
00:51:30,712 --> 00:51:34,423
is buried here in the family vault.

771
00:51:35,967 --> 00:51:40,804
Here you will see
the first duke and his duchess.

772
00:51:41,556 --> 00:51:45,726
The dead watching, as it were,
over the living.

773
00:51:47,145 --> 00:51:50,368
The church is exceptionally endowed also

774
00:51:50,468 --> 00:51:53,817
with items of architectural interest.

775
00:51:55,236 --> 00:51:58,447
You will note that our chantry

776
00:51:58,573 --> 00:52:02,492
displays the crocketed and finialed ogee

777
00:52:02,618 --> 00:52:06,955
which marks it as very early Perpendicular.

778
00:52:08,791 --> 00:52:11,626
The bosses to the pendant are typical.

779
00:52:13,504 --> 00:52:15,464
And I always say

780
00:52:16,340 --> 00:52:19,176
that my west window

781
00:52:19,302 --> 00:52:22,679
has all the exuberance of Chaucer

782
00:52:23,639 --> 00:52:29,115
without, happily, any of
the concomitant crudities of his period.

783
00:52:29,215 --> 00:52:30,215
Hmm.

784
00:52:30,980 --> 00:52:33,148
Now we approach the font.

785
00:52:34,150 --> 00:52:37,248
At last he did as I had hoped
and invited me to dinner.

786
00:52:37,348 --> 00:52:40,864
The Reverend Lord Henry was not
one of those newfangled parsons

787
00:52:40,990 --> 00:52:44,630
who carry the principles of their vocation
uncomfortably into private life.

788
00:52:44,730 --> 00:52:47,258
However, he exhibited a polite interest

789
00:52:47,358 --> 00:52:49,831
in the progress of the Christian faith
in Matabeleland

790
00:52:49,957 --> 00:52:51,833
which I was at some difficulty to satisfy.

791
00:52:51,959 --> 00:52:54,599
The SPCK have provided us

792
00:52:54,699 --> 00:52:57,380
with a large number of copies
of the Good Book

793
00:52:57,507 --> 00:52:59,716
translated into Matabele.

794
00:52:59,842 --> 00:53:03,149
But as none of the natives can read
even their own language...

795
00:53:03,249 --> 00:53:07,182
- You speak Matabele yourself?
- Not as a native.

796
00:53:08,184 --> 00:53:10,560
It would be most interesting

797
00:53:10,686 --> 00:53:13,688
to hear a sample of the language.

798
00:53:14,524 --> 00:53:16,566
I'm afraid my Matabele is a little rusty.

799
00:53:16,818 --> 00:53:19,194
Oh, come, my lord.

800
00:53:21,155 --> 00:53:26,034
Daniel cast into the lions' den, for example.

801
00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:40,715
It is a colloquial rendering, of course.

802
00:53:41,217 --> 00:53:42,926
Most interesting.

803
00:53:45,096 --> 00:53:47,180
My lord, the port is with you.

804
00:53:47,515 --> 00:53:48,515
Oh.

805
00:53:51,894 --> 00:53:54,896
- How do you find the wine?
- Admirable.

806
00:53:55,565 --> 00:53:58,108
- Courban '69.
- Oh.

807
00:53:58,234 --> 00:54:00,569
No finer year, in my view.

808
00:54:03,364 --> 00:54:07,033
My doctor, though, is of a different opinion.

809
00:54:07,577 --> 00:54:09,578
And what does he favour?

810
00:54:11,247 --> 00:54:12,789
Abstinence.

811
00:54:15,626 --> 00:54:17,919
Would you care for a cigar?

812
00:54:19,130 --> 00:54:20,589
Thank you.

813
00:54:48,117 --> 00:54:49,117
Yes.

814
00:54:51,329 --> 00:54:56,291
He's continually warning me
about the state of my arteries.

815
00:55:01,797 --> 00:55:03,506
But I say to him,

816
00:55:04,467 --> 00:55:07,607
"What possible harm can there be

817
00:55:07,707 --> 00:55:10,096
"in one glass of an evening

818
00:55:12,350 --> 00:55:13,850
"or even two?"

819
00:55:14,310 --> 00:55:16,019
What harm, indeed.

820
00:55:17,980 --> 00:55:21,316
- You do not condemn me then?
- Not in the least.

821
00:55:22,818 --> 00:55:24,444
If I may say so,

822
00:55:25,279 --> 00:55:28,823
without disrespect to my superiors,

823
00:55:29,825 --> 00:55:33,203
your visit has brought me something

824
00:55:33,829 --> 00:55:38,667
which I could not expect
from any churchman in this country.

825
00:56:12,159 --> 00:56:14,703
I surmised, correctly, as it proved

826
00:56:14,829 --> 00:56:18,678
that Lord Henry's doctor would assume
that he had succumbed to a surfeit of port

827
00:56:18,778 --> 00:56:21,209
and would politely ascribe death
to a heart attack.

828
00:56:22,044 --> 00:56:25,088
On my return to London,
I decided to proceed methodically

829
00:56:25,214 --> 00:56:28,312
with the elimination of
the remaining minor obstacles.

830
00:56:28,412 --> 00:56:33,221
Lady Agatha D'Ascoyne was a pioneer
in the campaign for women's suffrage.

831
00:56:39,562 --> 00:56:42,063
With the inconvenient consequence
that her public appearances

832
00:56:42,189 --> 00:56:46,067
were invariably made under
the watchful eyes of the metropolitan police.

833
00:56:46,193 --> 00:56:48,445
When she was not making
public appearances,

834
00:56:48,571 --> 00:56:51,740
she was in prison
and still more inaccessible.

835
00:56:51,866 --> 00:56:55,214
In fact, before I could learn
of a favourable opportunity,

836
00:56:55,314 --> 00:56:57,787
I had to join the movement myself.

837
00:56:58,289 --> 00:57:00,511
Secret plans had been made for Lady Agatha

838
00:57:00,611 --> 00:57:02,513
to celebrate her latest release from Holloway

839
00:57:02,613 --> 00:57:05,628
by a shower of leaflets over Whitehall
and the West End.

840
00:57:39,580 --> 00:57:41,247
I shot an arrow in the air,

841
00:57:42,792 --> 00:57:45,502
she fell to Earth in Berkeley Square.

842
00:57:46,670 --> 00:57:50,423
Admiral Lord Horatio D'Ascoyne
presented a more difficult problem.

843
00:57:51,675 --> 00:57:54,135
He scarcely ever set foot ashore

844
00:57:55,346 --> 00:57:59,849
and I was beginning to feel that this task
was beyond even my ingenuity.

845
00:58:02,478 --> 00:58:05,409
When he was conveniently
involved in a naval disaster

846
00:58:05,509 --> 00:58:08,579
which arose from a combination
of natural obstinacy

847
00:58:08,679 --> 00:58:10,748
and a certain confusion of mind.

848
00:58:10,848 --> 00:58:12,654
Unfortunate in one of his rank.

849
00:58:13,948 --> 00:58:15,657
Bring her to port.

850
00:58:18,327 --> 00:58:21,329
- Surely you mean starboard, sir.
- Port!

851
00:58:30,464 --> 00:58:33,145
Both ships sank almost immediately.

852
00:58:33,245 --> 00:58:36,719
Though, fortunately,
all hands were saved, save one.

853
00:58:38,681 --> 00:58:41,654
Admiral Lord Horatio, obstinate to the last

854
00:58:41,754 --> 00:58:44,477
insisted on going down with his ship.

855
00:58:48,190 --> 00:58:51,497
General Lord Rufus D'Ascoyne,
on the other hand,

856
00:58:51,597 --> 00:58:53,903
who never tired of demonstrating
how he had fought

857
00:58:54,029 --> 00:58:56,961
the most calamitous campaign
of the South African War

858
00:58:57,061 --> 00:58:58,462
was a fairly easy proposition.

859
00:58:58,562 --> 00:59:04,747
At that moment, the concealed enemy
emerged from behind the kopje.

860
00:59:05,374 --> 00:59:10,211
I held our guns' fire until
we could see the whites of their eyes.

861
00:59:10,337 --> 00:59:13,715
Then I gave the order. "Fire!"

862
00:59:15,092 --> 00:59:16,509
Boom, boom, boom.

863
00:59:17,761 --> 00:59:20,722
It seemed appropriate that
he who had lived amidst the cannon's roar

864
00:59:20,848 --> 00:59:22,849
should die explosively.

865
00:59:23,225 --> 00:59:28,229
I therefore concealed in a pot of caviar
a simple but powerful homemade bomb

866
00:59:28,939 --> 00:59:32,692
and through the post,
I sent the caviar to the general.

867
00:59:32,943 --> 00:59:35,612
I pretended
to be deceived by the feint

868
00:59:35,738 --> 00:59:37,947
and sent our horse to meet it.

869
00:59:38,073 --> 00:59:43,036
At that moment, the concealed enemy
emerged from behind the kopje.

870
00:59:43,621 --> 00:59:45,747
I held our guns' fire

871
00:59:45,873 --> 00:59:48,791
till we could see the whites of their eyes.

872
00:59:54,298 --> 00:59:57,634
Used to get a lot of this stuff in the Crimea.

873
00:59:57,760 --> 01:00:00,595
One thing the Russkies do really well.

874
01:00:04,642 --> 01:00:06,809
Not an atom of him was left.

875
01:00:10,147 --> 01:00:15,206
One could almost believe there was a curse
on our unfortunate family, Mazzini.

876
01:00:15,306 --> 01:00:16,611
Indeed, sir, one could.

877
01:00:16,737 --> 01:00:20,085
I don't know if you realise
how close this series of tragedies

878
01:00:20,185 --> 01:00:22,325
has brought you to the succession.

879
01:00:22,451 --> 01:00:24,379
I had not actually given the matter
any thought, sir.

880
01:00:24,479 --> 01:00:26,091
Then it's time that you did.

881
01:00:26,191 --> 01:00:29,999
Do you not realise that you are
heir presumptive to the dukedom?

882
01:00:30,125 --> 01:00:32,769
That is to say, in the event of
the present duke dying without issue,

883
01:00:32,869 --> 01:00:35,797
I alone intervene between you and the title.

884
01:00:36,257 --> 01:00:38,091
And I am an old man.

885
01:00:38,842 --> 01:00:41,803
I've never really recovered
from the first of these calamities.

886
01:00:42,596 --> 01:00:44,639
You mean I might become Duke of Chalfont?

887
01:00:44,765 --> 01:00:46,683
I mean that you almost certainly will.

888
01:00:48,143 --> 01:00:50,311
In view of that, I feel it would be more fitting

889
01:00:50,437 --> 01:00:53,577
that you should cease to be
an employee here.

890
01:00:53,677 --> 01:00:56,859
- Oh.
- And become instead my partner.

891
01:00:58,279 --> 01:01:00,363
I am most deeply grateful and honoured.

892
01:01:00,489 --> 01:01:04,826
If you'll come round here,
I will make everything very clear to you.

893
01:01:14,044 --> 01:01:19,048
Uh, had she lived, your mother, of course,
would have succeeded before you.

894
01:01:19,592 --> 01:01:21,480
One of my first tasks as partner

895
01:01:21,580 --> 01:01:23,845
was to interview Lionel, who came cap...

896
01:01:24,388 --> 01:01:26,681
Or rather, silk hat in hand.

897
01:01:27,850 --> 01:01:31,269
To save time, I presume you have called
to ask for renewal of your bill?

898
01:01:32,354 --> 01:01:34,681
The fact is, old boy, we sold short

899
01:01:34,781 --> 01:01:37,851
and the market hasn't
dropped as we expected.

900
01:01:37,951 --> 01:01:41,605
I feel entitled to point out
that we here regard our function

901
01:01:41,705 --> 01:01:44,691
as the encouragement
of constructive investment

902
01:01:44,791 --> 01:01:47,694
and not the financing
of mere gambling transactions.

903
01:01:47,794 --> 01:01:48,994
Now...

904
01:01:50,080 --> 01:01:52,365
It would have delighted me
to refuse him.

905
01:01:52,465 --> 01:01:55,118
However, a bankrupt Lionel
could hardly have continued

906
01:01:55,218 --> 01:01:57,754
to support Sibella in her extravagances

907
01:01:57,880 --> 01:02:00,185
and I had no wish to do so myself.

908
01:02:00,285 --> 01:02:04,552
Very well. We will renew
at three and a half percent.

909
01:02:04,970 --> 01:02:07,631
I judged that the time was now ripe
to make a move

910
01:02:07,731 --> 01:02:09,361
in the matter of Edith D'Ascoyne.

911
01:02:09,461 --> 01:02:11,559
It's becoming cold. Shall we go in?

912
01:02:12,561 --> 01:02:15,055
I know why you shivered just now.

913
01:02:15,155 --> 01:02:17,369
It was not because you were cold.

914
01:02:17,469 --> 01:02:18,469
No.

915
01:02:19,943 --> 01:02:21,978
I couldn't help remembering.

916
01:02:22,078 --> 01:02:24,947
I know. But do you try to forget?

917
01:02:25,991 --> 01:02:29,160
- I may sound harsh, but believe me...
- Please.

918
01:02:29,787 --> 01:02:31,162
Not there.

919
01:02:33,499 --> 01:02:35,992
Because it was Henry's chair.

920
01:02:36,092 --> 01:02:38,670
It hasn't been used since that day.

921
01:02:39,171 --> 01:02:40,997
Nothing of his.

922
01:02:41,097 --> 01:02:45,259
Everything is just as he left it,
his writing desk, his clothes.

923
01:02:45,969 --> 01:02:48,930
I cannot bear that it should be otherwise.

924
01:02:50,766 --> 01:02:53,343
You want this house to be a shrine.

925
01:02:53,443 --> 01:02:57,480
You're wrong.
Shrines are not meant to house the living.

926
01:02:58,691 --> 01:03:03,186
I have always respected you,
your principles, your courage,

927
01:03:03,286 --> 01:03:05,689
above any woman I've ever met.

928
01:03:05,789 --> 01:03:09,088
It is your duty to yourself and to others,

929
01:03:09,188 --> 01:03:10,993
to Henry even,

930
01:03:11,120 --> 01:03:14,205
to live again in the present, in the future.

931
01:03:15,290 --> 01:03:16,708
What future is there for me?

932
01:03:23,716 --> 01:03:27,009
I am now going to say
something presumptuous.

933
01:03:27,136 --> 01:03:29,796
You must order me
from your house if you wish.

934
01:03:29,896 --> 01:03:31,472
It is this...

935
01:03:32,182 --> 01:03:36,448
If you should ever feel that
the constant support of a devoted admirer

936
01:03:36,548 --> 01:03:38,888
would be of assistance to you,

937
01:03:38,988 --> 01:03:42,121
I should be most honoured
if you would permit me

938
01:03:42,221 --> 01:03:44,694
to offer you my hand in marriage.

939
01:03:46,530 --> 01:03:47,989
Mr Mazzini...

940
01:03:55,205 --> 01:03:56,873
This is a shock.

941
01:03:58,876 --> 01:04:00,585
I'm most touched.

942
01:04:01,545 --> 01:04:03,830
Most grateful,

943
01:04:03,930 --> 01:04:07,842
but I could not consider
even the possibility of remarrying.

944
01:04:08,886 --> 01:04:12,221
I have spoken too boldly and too soon.

945
01:04:13,932 --> 01:04:17,894
Please regard what I have said merely
as something to draw upon

946
01:04:18,020 --> 01:04:19,687
should you ever feel so inclined.

947
01:04:20,397 --> 01:04:22,995
Sibella was waiting for me
when I got back.

948
01:04:23,095 --> 01:04:26,019
I was pleased to see her,
for while I never admired Edith

949
01:04:26,119 --> 01:04:28,167
as much as when I was with Sibella,

950
01:04:28,267 --> 01:04:31,199
I never longed for Sibella
as much as when I was with Edith.

951
01:04:33,577 --> 01:04:36,362
I'm afraid I'm late. Have you been bored?

952
01:04:36,462 --> 01:04:37,462
No.

953
01:04:38,123 --> 01:04:41,013
I've been looking into the fire and thinking.

954
01:04:41,113 --> 01:04:43,119
- What about?
- Oh.

955
01:04:43,219 --> 01:04:46,589
How we used to roast chestnuts
round the other fire

956
01:04:46,715 --> 01:04:49,209
and what a lot has happened since.

957
01:04:49,309 --> 01:04:50,689
Such as?

958
01:04:50,789 --> 01:04:54,860
How you told me not to marry Lionel
because you might be a duke one day

959
01:04:54,960 --> 01:04:57,058
and how I laughed at you.

960
01:04:57,768 --> 01:04:59,894
And how I married Lionel

961
01:05:00,395 --> 01:05:03,064
and now you very nearly are a duke.

962
01:05:04,483 --> 01:05:06,309
We're much better off as we are, you and I.

963
01:05:06,409 --> 01:05:11,043
It's all very well for you to say that.
You're not married to Lionel.

964
01:05:11,143 --> 01:05:13,817
We see each other when we want to.

965
01:05:13,917 --> 01:05:16,059
We're not obliged to see each other
when we don't want to.

966
01:05:16,159 --> 01:05:19,121
We don't see each other as often as I'd like to.

967
01:05:19,248 --> 01:05:22,054
- You've been away the whole weekend.
- I had to go.

968
01:05:22,154 --> 01:05:24,494
- Where?
- To see Mrs D'Ascoyne,

969
01:05:24,594 --> 01:05:27,330
the widow of that cousin of mine
who was killed.

970
01:05:27,430 --> 01:05:30,229
All your cousins seem to get killed.

971
01:05:30,329 --> 01:05:34,470
I really wouldn't be in the least surprised
if you'd murdered them all.

972
01:05:34,596 --> 01:05:36,806
- Oh.
- How clumsy of me.

973
01:05:48,944 --> 01:05:52,363
- Whatever made you say that?
- Just silliness.

974
01:05:53,198 --> 01:05:56,526
Well, if you promise not to tell anyone,
I'll let you in to my guilty secret.

975
01:05:56,626 --> 01:05:57,952
I did murder them all.

976
01:05:59,454 --> 01:06:01,998
I've suspected it for a long time.

977
01:06:03,125 --> 01:06:05,264
- What's she like?
- Who?

978
01:06:05,364 --> 01:06:09,505
- Mrs D'Ascoyne.
- Oh, she's tall, slender...

979
01:06:10,048 --> 01:06:11,374
Beautiful?

980
01:06:11,474 --> 01:06:13,465
Yes, I suppose some people
would call her beautiful.

981
01:06:13,565 --> 01:06:14,940
Would you?

982
01:06:15,040 --> 01:06:18,347
I suppose so.
I never really thought about that.

983
01:06:18,473 --> 01:06:21,559
What would you say
if she asked you about me?

984
01:06:30,235 --> 01:06:34,030
I'd say that you were
a perfect combination of imperfections.

985
01:06:34,156 --> 01:06:37,734
I'd say that your nose
was just a little too short,

986
01:06:37,834 --> 01:06:40,328
your mouth just a little too wide,

987
01:06:40,996 --> 01:06:43,489
but that yours was a face
that a man could see in his dreams

988
01:06:43,589 --> 01:06:45,708
for the whole of his life.

989
01:06:46,376 --> 01:06:49,211
I'd say that you were vain, selfish,

990
01:06:50,088 --> 01:06:52,673
cruel, deceitful.

991
01:06:54,509 --> 01:06:56,886
I'd say that you were adorable.

992
01:06:57,679 --> 01:07:00,514
I'd say that you were Sibella.

993
01:07:01,850 --> 01:07:03,927
What a pretty speech.

994
01:07:04,027 --> 01:07:05,394
I mean it.

995
01:07:06,521 --> 01:07:08,773
Come and say it to me again.

996
01:07:13,904 --> 01:07:16,522
I'd say your nose was just a little too short,

997
01:07:16,622 --> 01:07:21,077
and your mouth, yes,
your mouth just a little too wide.

998
01:07:29,294 --> 01:07:31,712
Shortly afterwards,
my employer had a stroke.

999
01:07:32,214 --> 01:07:33,923
There was little that could be done

1000
01:07:34,049 --> 01:07:37,189
and the doctor gave him a month,
at the most, to live.

1001
01:07:37,289 --> 01:07:39,879
I was glad, after all his kindness to me

1002
01:07:39,979 --> 01:07:42,431
that I should not have to kill the old man.

1003
01:07:42,557 --> 01:07:45,864
Soon the only obstacle
between me and my inheritance

1004
01:07:45,964 --> 01:07:47,728
would be the Duke himself.

1005
01:07:48,105 --> 01:07:50,390
I could lay no plan for disposing of him

1006
01:07:50,490 --> 01:07:54,373
as the life he led within those great
stone walls was a closed book to me.

1007
01:07:54,473 --> 01:07:57,647
I was gloomily examining the problem
for the hundredth time

1008
01:07:57,747 --> 01:08:01,283
as I awaited one day the expected arrival
of Sibella at my apartments.

1009
01:08:08,750 --> 01:08:11,919
- Good afternoon, Mr Mazzini.
- Mrs D'Ascoyne.

1010
01:08:12,421 --> 01:08:13,830
I was passing through St James's

1011
01:08:13,930 --> 01:08:17,591
and thought I would take the opportunity
to call on you.

1012
01:08:20,929 --> 01:08:22,763
Was that wise? Discreet, I mean?

1013
01:08:23,181 --> 01:08:26,571
There are some conventions which must be
governed by individual circumstance.

1014
01:08:26,671 --> 01:08:29,645
Surely it is safe for a woman
to visit a man of your reputation.

1015
01:08:29,771 --> 01:08:31,597
It is of your reputation that I'm thinking.

1016
01:08:31,697 --> 01:08:35,184
Without being inhospitable, I would be
happier if your visit were not a long one.

1017
01:08:35,284 --> 01:08:38,154
I appreciate the scrupulousness
of your motives.

1018
01:08:38,280 --> 01:08:40,919
I have, anyhow,
only one important matter to speak of.

1019
01:08:41,019 --> 01:08:42,158
That is?

1020
01:08:42,284 --> 01:08:45,945
I have thought a great deal about
what you said at our last meeting

1021
01:08:46,045 --> 01:08:49,665
and I have tried to think
what Henry's wishes would be.

1022
01:08:49,958 --> 01:08:52,293
I remember he said to me once,

1023
01:08:53,003 --> 01:08:56,039
"You have too much good in you, Edith,
for one man.

1024
01:08:56,139 --> 01:08:58,379
"I sometimes wish
that others could have a share of it."

1025
01:09:01,344 --> 01:09:03,546
I have reconsidered the offer you made to me.

1026
01:09:03,646 --> 01:09:06,307
Thank you again for it, and accept it gladly.

1027
01:09:07,476 --> 01:09:09,310
You rob me of words.

1028
01:09:09,978 --> 01:09:13,564
I think, however, we should make
no announcement for three months, at least.

1029
01:09:14,024 --> 01:09:15,641
As you think best.

1030
01:09:15,741 --> 01:09:17,622
In these new circumstances

1031
01:09:17,722 --> 01:09:20,480
I think it more than ever desirable
that your unconventional,

1032
01:09:20,580 --> 01:09:23,157
though in its purpose delightful visit
should be cut short.

1033
01:09:23,658 --> 01:09:28,537
If your attention as a husband is equal
of your consideration as a friend,

1034
01:09:28,663 --> 01:09:31,665
I shall have made a most fortunate decision.

1035
01:09:38,840 --> 01:09:41,084
Do you not think, though,
that perhaps Uncle Ethelred,

1036
01:09:41,184 --> 01:09:44,345
as head of the family,
should be told at once?

1037
01:09:44,846 --> 01:09:47,723
Perhaps so. Yes, I'll write to him.

1038
01:09:47,849 --> 01:09:49,842
Goodbye, Louis.

1039
01:09:49,942 --> 01:09:51,852
Goodbye, Edith.

1040
01:09:53,522 --> 01:09:56,774
You leave behind you
the happiest man in London.

1041
01:10:04,866 --> 01:10:06,242
This was not a piece of news

1042
01:10:06,368 --> 01:10:09,745
which I was looking forward
to breaking to Sibella.

1043
01:10:09,871 --> 01:10:11,676
She had no rights in the matter,

1044
01:10:11,776 --> 01:10:15,347
but women have a disconcerting ability
to make scenes out of nothing

1045
01:10:15,447 --> 01:10:19,380
and to prove themselves injured
when they themselves are at fault.

1046
01:10:21,091 --> 01:10:25,219
Anyhow, I had three months' grace
before I need face that storm.

1047
01:10:36,231 --> 01:10:39,142
Have you taken to using attar of roses?

1048
01:10:39,242 --> 01:10:42,278
- No. Why?
- Thought I could smell it.

1049
01:10:43,488 --> 01:10:46,991
I met such a beautiful woman
on the stairs just now.

1050
01:10:47,909 --> 01:10:49,402
I expect that would be Mrs D'Ascoyne.

1051
01:10:49,502 --> 01:10:51,622
- What was she doing here?
- She called in to see me.

1052
01:10:51,746 --> 01:10:54,623
- What about?
- Business. Family business.

1053
01:10:54,749 --> 01:10:57,251
Let me get you a glass of sherry.

1054
01:11:00,922 --> 01:11:03,895
A day or so later,
I received a letter from Lionel.

1055
01:11:03,995 --> 01:11:08,087
He requested an interview with me
at his house on a matter of some delicacy.

1056
01:11:08,187 --> 01:11:11,307
I was somewhat perturbed,
for nine times out of 10

1057
01:11:11,433 --> 01:11:14,051
what is referred to
as a matter of some delicacy

1058
01:11:14,151 --> 01:11:17,396
is, in point of fact, one of extreme indelicacy.

1059
01:11:17,689 --> 01:11:21,358
Two days later,
I made the tedious journey to Bayswater.

1060
01:11:22,152 --> 01:11:25,354
It was typical of Lionel that he should
live on the wrong side of the park.

1061
01:11:25,454 --> 01:11:27,740
Hello, old boy. Have a drink.

1062
01:11:28,617 --> 01:11:31,402
No, thank you. Never during the day.

1063
01:11:31,502 --> 01:11:34,747
You don't mind if I do? Keep out the cold.

1064
01:11:35,290 --> 01:11:37,617
I was about to remark
on the warmth of the day.

1065
01:11:37,717 --> 01:11:40,336
- Just a joke, old boy.
- Ah, yes.

1066
01:11:40,921 --> 01:11:44,673
- Sit down, old boy.
- No, thank you. I would rather stand.

1067
01:11:47,052 --> 01:11:50,671
A warm day, isn't it?
For the time of the year, I mean.

1068
01:11:50,771 --> 01:11:54,342
Distinctly. It's also a very busy day.

1069
01:11:54,442 --> 01:11:56,821
May we proceed to the matter
about which you wished to see me?

1070
01:11:56,921 --> 01:12:00,272
Right. A matter of some delicacy,
actually, old boy.

1071
01:12:02,067 --> 01:12:05,319
But I said to myself,
"Louis is a sport and a man of the world.

1072
01:12:05,862 --> 01:12:08,564
- "Always been a sport."
- Thank you.

1073
01:12:08,664 --> 01:12:13,653
Always admired the sporting way in which
you took to Sibella marrying me and not you.

1074
01:12:13,753 --> 01:12:15,753
Some fellows would have
taken it very differently.

1075
01:12:16,665 --> 01:12:18,791
But "May the best man win," you said.

1076
01:12:19,292 --> 01:12:21,744
And when I won,
you behaved like a gentleman.

1077
01:12:21,844 --> 01:12:26,257
So I thought as you being keen on Sibella
at one time

1078
01:12:26,716 --> 01:12:31,170
and you and I are old friends,
I... I'd ask you to help us.

1079
01:12:31,270 --> 01:12:32,421
Help you?

1080
01:12:32,521 --> 01:12:35,266
I told you some time back
business hasn't been going so well.

1081
01:12:36,268 --> 01:12:39,395
Since then, it's gone worse. I'm bankrupt.

1082
01:12:40,063 --> 01:12:44,275
So I say to myself,
"Why not talk to my old pal, Louis Mazzini

1083
01:12:45,068 --> 01:12:49,780
"who we used to have such jolly times with
round the old nursery fire

1084
01:12:50,323 --> 01:12:51,941
"roasting chestnuts."

1085
01:12:52,041 --> 01:12:54,110
I'm afraid your memory is deceiving you.

1086
01:12:54,210 --> 01:12:58,781
By no stretch of imagination could you and I
be described as ever having been "pals".

1087
01:12:58,881 --> 01:13:01,409
If I remember correctly,
we detested each other cordially

1088
01:13:01,509 --> 01:13:02,660
from the first day we met,

1089
01:13:02,760 --> 01:13:05,246
with a detestation
which increased with our years.

1090
01:13:05,346 --> 01:13:08,966
Always thought of you as a pal.
Always have done.

1091
01:13:09,759 --> 01:13:11,043
That's why I said to myself...

1092
01:13:11,143 --> 01:13:13,583
It's only fair to warn you
that any further expense of breath

1093
01:13:13,687 --> 01:13:15,597
on this subject would be a waste.

1094
01:13:16,766 --> 01:13:18,759
You know what you're doing?

1095
01:13:18,859 --> 01:13:21,804
- Condemning me to death.
- What do you mean?

1096
01:13:21,904 --> 01:13:25,441
Only one way out for me,
do away with myself.

1097
01:13:25,942 --> 01:13:28,352
If you knew how absurd
these histrionics sounded...

1098
01:13:28,452 --> 01:13:31,897
I'm insured. At least the little woman
will be provided for.

1099
01:13:31,997 --> 01:13:35,326
- Oh, don't be ridiculous.
- Louis, I appeal to you.

1100
01:13:35,702 --> 01:13:39,613
Not for my sake,
but for the sake of the little woman.

1101
01:13:39,713 --> 01:13:42,041
Please rise from that absurd position.

1102
01:13:57,307 --> 01:14:00,517
All I can say is
I think you're a cad.

1103
01:14:01,061 --> 01:14:02,603
A selfish cad.

1104
01:14:04,856 --> 01:14:07,191
Let me remind you
of a little not-so-ancient history.

1105
01:14:07,942 --> 01:14:10,770
When I was a draper's assistant and you
a rich father's son,

1106
01:14:10,870 --> 01:14:12,438
you showed me no kindness.

1107
01:14:12,538 --> 01:14:16,192
Now our positions are reversed,
and you come whining to me for favours.

1108
01:14:16,292 --> 01:14:19,111
Draper's assistant. That's right.

1109
01:14:19,211 --> 01:14:21,663
Rotten little counterjumper. That's all you are.

1110
01:14:22,624 --> 01:14:24,992
Very high and mighty now

1111
01:14:25,092 --> 01:14:28,295
but your mother married
an Italian organ-grinder.

1112
01:14:31,257 --> 01:14:32,625
- Stand up.
- Huh?

1113
01:14:32,725 --> 01:14:34,676
I said stand up.

1114
01:14:36,054 --> 01:14:39,515
I will not tolerate hearing
my mother's name on your coarse tongue.

1115
01:14:47,690 --> 01:14:51,268
If you take my advice, you'll go
and put your head under a cold tap.

1116
01:14:51,368 --> 01:14:55,030
I refuse to demean myself
by fighting with a drunken oaf.

1117
01:15:07,127 --> 01:15:10,204
There seemed no point
in prolonging this vulgar brawl

1118
01:15:10,304 --> 01:15:12,423
so I returned to my apartment.

1119
01:15:19,597 --> 01:15:22,007
I took a bath and decided to relax
for half an hour

1120
01:15:22,107 --> 01:15:24,393
and efface this disagreeable scene
from my memory.

1121
01:15:26,813 --> 01:15:28,772
I was not allowed to relax for long.

1122
01:15:34,446 --> 01:15:35,863
Sibella.

1123
01:15:39,033 --> 01:15:42,528
Louis, I'm sorry to worry you
when you must be so busy

1124
01:15:42,628 --> 01:15:44,746
but I have a piece
of important news.

1125
01:15:45,331 --> 01:15:46,457
Bad news.

1126
01:15:47,041 --> 01:15:49,042
I thought
you ought to know it at once.

1127
01:15:56,676 --> 01:15:58,469
Lionel has found out about us.

1128
01:15:59,888 --> 01:16:02,047
About me coming here.

1129
01:16:02,147 --> 01:16:03,841
- Really?
- Yes.

1130
01:16:03,941 --> 01:16:04,941
Oh.

1131
01:16:06,311 --> 01:16:09,938
I had the most dreadful scene
with him last night.

1132
01:16:11,024 --> 01:16:14,685
Well, I suppose even Lionel isn't
stupid enough to be deceived forever.

1133
01:16:14,785 --> 01:16:17,112
You won't take it so calmly
when you hear.

1134
01:16:18,406 --> 01:16:20,649
He's going to start
divorce proceedings.

1135
01:16:20,749 --> 01:16:22,784
How very unsophisticated of him.

1136
01:16:24,537 --> 01:16:28,874
There's only one possible
way out that I can see.

1137
01:16:30,376 --> 01:16:33,879
- And that is?
- Lionel is still in love with me.

1138
01:16:34,714 --> 01:16:37,090
My happiness
is all he cares about.

1139
01:16:37,800 --> 01:16:40,886
He might do the gentlemanly thing
and let me divorce him.

1140
01:16:41,888 --> 01:16:42,888
If?

1141
01:16:44,516 --> 01:16:47,051
If I were in a position to explain to him

1142
01:16:47,151 --> 01:16:50,095
that otherwise he will be jeopardizing
the social position

1143
01:16:50,195 --> 01:16:52,515
not only of the future duke,

1144
01:16:52,615 --> 01:16:55,275
but also the future duchess of Chalfont.

1145
01:16:57,445 --> 01:16:58,645
I see.

1146
01:17:05,286 --> 01:17:08,531
You're a clever little thing, Sibella,
but not quite clever enough.

1147
01:17:08,631 --> 01:17:09,949
What do you mean?

1148
01:17:10,049 --> 01:17:12,576
I mean that not only do I know
that you're blackmailing me,

1149
01:17:12,676 --> 01:17:14,870
an ugly word,
but the only appropriate one,

1150
01:17:14,970 --> 01:17:17,540
but I also know
that you're bluffing me.

1151
01:17:17,640 --> 01:17:19,667
Call my bluff and see.

1152
01:17:19,767 --> 01:17:21,093
I will.

1153
01:17:25,181 --> 01:17:26,882
Let me explain.

1154
01:17:26,982 --> 01:17:29,510
It must have seemed to you
that you hold a very strong hand.

1155
01:17:29,610 --> 01:17:31,971
But... A very important "but",

1156
01:17:32,071 --> 01:17:36,392
it so happens that I hold a card which
you did not even know to be in the pack.

1157
01:17:36,492 --> 01:17:37,768
Who's bluffing now?

1158
01:17:37,868 --> 01:17:41,021
It so happens that I was with Lionel
less than an hour ago.

1159
01:17:41,121 --> 01:17:44,525
And it was transparently clear
from his demeanour and conversation

1160
01:17:44,625 --> 01:17:48,070
that he had not the faintest suspicion
that you and I had any relationship

1161
01:17:48,170 --> 01:17:50,914
other than that of,
as he would probably put it,

1162
01:17:51,374 --> 01:17:55,502
old pals who used to roast chestnuts
together round the jolly old nursery fire.

1163
01:17:57,505 --> 01:18:00,708
So, while thanking you
for the honour that you've done me,

1164
01:18:00,808 --> 01:18:03,627
I must decline your offer
because I have other arrangements

1165
01:18:03,727 --> 01:18:05,515
which make it impossible for me
to accept it.

1166
01:18:05,615 --> 01:18:07,004
Namely?

1167
01:18:07,147 --> 01:18:10,517
I'm shortly going to announce
my engagement to Mrs D'Ascoyne.

1168
01:18:19,444 --> 01:18:22,487
May I say that I think
you've behaved despicably?

1169
01:18:25,033 --> 01:18:29,494
Has it ever occurred to you, Sibella,
that we serve each other right, you and I?

1170
01:18:34,626 --> 01:18:38,420
Would it be asking too much of your manners
to escort me to the door?

1171
01:18:45,845 --> 01:18:48,672
I had suspected
that to confide our secret to the Duke

1172
01:18:48,772 --> 01:18:51,925
might be an adroit manoeuvre,
and I was proved correct

1173
01:18:52,025 --> 01:18:56,647
for it produced an invitation for Edith and me
to spend a few days at the castle.

1174
01:18:57,732 --> 01:19:01,560
I must confess that I could not suppress
an agreeable sensation of triumph

1175
01:19:01,660 --> 01:19:03,812
as I approached
the castle gateway

1176
01:19:03,912 --> 01:19:07,282
in circumstances so different
from those in which I had last done so.

1177
01:19:08,242 --> 01:19:09,962
It was just an informal
little house party.

1178
01:19:11,704 --> 01:19:15,658
Our fellow guests were Lady Redpole
and her daughter Maud

1179
01:19:15,758 --> 01:19:19,036
who most suitably resembled
nothing so much as a red poll cow

1180
01:19:19,136 --> 01:19:21,080
and had little more
conversational ability.

1181
01:19:21,180 --> 01:19:24,174
- Did you go to the opera this season?
- No.

1182
01:19:27,428 --> 01:19:30,839
In the afternoon,
Ethelred invited me to inspect the castle.

1183
01:19:30,939 --> 01:19:33,133
It was pleasant to stand
on the battlements

1184
01:19:33,233 --> 01:19:36,512
and know that the acres
which stretched as far as the eye could see

1185
01:19:36,612 --> 01:19:38,438
would soon be mine.

1186
01:19:38,856 --> 01:19:42,901
And it amused me to cover much the same
ground as that of my sixpenny tour.

1187
01:19:44,028 --> 01:19:46,480
I had never been in a building
so lavishly equipped

1188
01:19:46,580 --> 01:19:48,899
with the instruments
of violent death.

1189
01:19:48,999 --> 01:19:50,901
Feel the weight of that.

1190
01:19:51,001 --> 01:19:53,537
Our ancestors must have
been fine men, Louis.

1191
01:19:56,582 --> 01:19:58,492
They seemed, however, ill-adapted

1192
01:19:58,592 --> 01:20:01,503
to the discreet requirements
of 20th-century homicide.

1193
01:20:02,588 --> 01:20:07,718
And the end of the day found my host
still intact and myself still without a plan.

1194
01:20:14,684 --> 01:20:16,969
Beautiful woman, Edith.

1195
01:20:17,069 --> 01:20:18,762
You're a lucky fellow, Louis.

1196
01:20:18,862 --> 01:20:21,064
I never cease to be conscious of that.

1197
01:20:21,441 --> 01:20:23,483
- Thank you.
- What do you think of Maud?

1198
01:20:23,985 --> 01:20:25,436
A charming girl,

1199
01:20:25,536 --> 01:20:28,814
though perhaps at times her conversation
is a little lacking in sparkle.

1200
01:20:28,914 --> 01:20:31,283
Dullest woman I ever met in my life.

1201
01:20:33,745 --> 01:20:35,537
Plain too.

1202
01:20:36,164 --> 01:20:38,290
But good breeding stock.

1203
01:20:40,877 --> 01:20:43,170
Good breeding stock, the Redpoles.

1204
01:20:43,880 --> 01:20:46,089
And they litter a very high proportion of boys.

1205
01:20:48,468 --> 01:20:50,335
Do I gather you to mean...

1206
01:20:50,435 --> 01:20:55,474
Spoke to old Lady Redpole this afternoon.
Only too glad to get the girl off her hands.

1207
01:20:56,058 --> 01:20:57,434
My congratulations.

1208
01:20:59,437 --> 01:21:01,521
Duty to the family, really.

1209
01:21:02,148 --> 01:21:04,391
And when does the union take place?

1210
01:21:04,491 --> 01:21:07,102
Very soon.
I'm not growing any younger.

1211
01:21:07,202 --> 01:21:11,064
Might not get a son the first time.
Quiet wedding, I thought.

1212
01:21:11,164 --> 01:21:13,575
Maud's hardly the type for St Margaret's.

1213
01:21:14,410 --> 01:21:18,405
We shall honeymoon on the Riviera
and then go on to Italy afterwards.

1214
01:21:18,505 --> 01:21:21,124
No sense inflicting her on one's friends.

1215
01:21:22,919 --> 01:21:25,962
When she's got a family,
that'll keep her out of the way.

1216
01:21:27,882 --> 01:21:30,834
This news threw me
into such distress of mind

1217
01:21:30,934 --> 01:21:32,711
that had I had poison
in my possession

1218
01:21:32,811 --> 01:21:35,964
I would probably have administered it
to Ethelred there and then

1219
01:21:36,064 --> 01:21:38,433
and chanced the consequent inquiries.

1220
01:21:40,019 --> 01:21:43,764
One thing was clear,
If I did not succeed in disposing of him

1221
01:21:43,864 --> 01:21:46,266
during this present visit
to the castle

1222
01:21:46,366 --> 01:21:49,319
I was likely to see the ruin
of my whole campaign.

1223
01:21:52,532 --> 01:21:55,367
My best wishes
for a successful outcome.

1224
01:21:57,411 --> 01:21:59,655
The next morning
I went out shooting with Ethelred

1225
01:21:59,755 --> 01:22:01,657
or rather,
to watch Ethelred shooting

1226
01:22:01,757 --> 01:22:05,536
for my principles will not allow me
to take a direct part in blood sports.

1227
01:22:05,636 --> 01:22:08,343
- Been round the traps this morning, Hoskins?
- Not yet, Your Grace.

1228
01:22:08,443 --> 01:22:11,041
Sounds as if we've bagged one there.

1229
01:22:11,141 --> 01:22:16,263
Ah. Been losing so much game lately,
we've started setting the mantraps again.

1230
01:22:25,022 --> 01:22:29,351
Hoskins is now going to thrash you.
Then he'll let you go.

1231
01:22:29,451 --> 01:22:32,612
Let this be a lesson to you
not to poach on my land.

1232
01:22:43,499 --> 01:22:44,916
That'll do.

1233
01:22:54,010 --> 01:22:57,212
Keep moving them around, Hoskins,
or they'll tell each other where they are.

1234
01:22:57,312 --> 01:22:58,930
Yes, Your Grace.

1235
01:23:00,725 --> 01:23:03,018
- I thought mantraps were illegal.
- They are.

1236
01:23:03,728 --> 01:23:05,090
What happens if he tells the police?

1237
01:23:05,190 --> 01:23:08,682
He comes up before the bench for poaching,
gets six months in jail.

1238
01:23:08,782 --> 01:23:12,569
If he keeps his mouth shut,
he just gets a few days in bed.

1239
01:23:13,154 --> 01:23:14,905
Which would you choose?

1240
01:23:20,161 --> 01:23:23,614
Only way to deal with these ruffians,
I assure you.

1241
01:23:23,714 --> 01:23:27,918
Oh. I must have dropped my cigarette case
back there. I'll catch you up.

1242
01:23:45,478 --> 01:23:47,137
- Find it?
- Yes, thanks.

1243
01:23:47,237 --> 01:23:50,815
Might have another walk round this afternoon,
if you feel like it.

1244
01:23:51,776 --> 01:23:53,393
That would be most pleasant.

1245
01:23:53,493 --> 01:23:57,989
After luncheon we went out
to massacre a few more unfortunate birds.

1246
01:23:58,991 --> 01:24:00,984
- Listen.
- What is it?

1247
01:24:01,084 --> 01:24:03,873
I thought I heard something,
like someone running through the bracken.

1248
01:24:03,973 --> 01:24:06,247
Another poaching ruffian! Come on!

1249
01:24:11,087 --> 01:24:13,380
There was someone here. Look.

1250
01:24:15,091 --> 01:24:16,291
Blast!

1251
01:24:16,808 --> 01:24:19,678
Louis, get me out of this. Hurry up, man.

1252
01:24:23,891 --> 01:24:26,393
- Have you gone mad?
- Be quiet, Ethelred.

1253
01:24:27,019 --> 01:24:29,179
I want to talk to you for a minute.

1254
01:24:29,279 --> 01:24:32,357
If you make a noise,
I shall blow your head off at once.

1255
01:24:34,235 --> 01:24:36,269
By the time anyone has heard the shot

1256
01:24:36,369 --> 01:24:39,823
I shall be running back toward the castle,
shouting for help.

1257
01:24:40,866 --> 01:24:43,243
I shall say that you stepped on the trap

1258
01:24:43,869 --> 01:24:46,780
and that your gun went off
accidentally as it fell.

1259
01:24:46,880 --> 01:24:47,998
So be quiet.

1260
01:24:49,458 --> 01:24:51,960
To spare you as much pain as possible

1261
01:24:52,420 --> 01:24:53,503
I'll be brief.

1262
01:24:58,300 --> 01:25:00,760
When I've finished, I shall kill you.

1263
01:25:02,471 --> 01:25:04,840
You'll be the sixth D'Ascoyne that I've killed.

1264
01:25:04,940 --> 01:25:06,307
You want to know why?

1265
01:25:07,768 --> 01:25:10,645
In return for what
the D'Ascoynes did to my mother.

1266
01:25:11,564 --> 01:25:16,818
Because she married for love
instead of for rank or money or land,

1267
01:25:17,695 --> 01:25:21,023
they condemned her to a life
of poverty and slavery

1268
01:25:21,123 --> 01:25:23,442
in a world with which
they had not equipped her to deal.

1269
01:25:23,542 --> 01:25:26,570
You yourself refused to grant
her dying wish

1270
01:25:26,670 --> 01:25:28,747
which was to be buried here at Chalfont.

1271
01:25:29,248 --> 01:25:32,709
When I saw her poor little coffin
slide underground,

1272
01:25:33,294 --> 01:25:36,129
saw her exiled in death
as she'd been in life,

1273
01:25:37,298 --> 01:25:40,967
I swore to have my revenge
on your intolerable pride.

1274
01:25:43,137 --> 01:25:47,807
That revenge
I am just about to complete.

1275
01:25:50,770 --> 01:25:52,896
It's clear that you are insane.

1276
01:25:53,647 --> 01:25:54,898
Give me that gun at once.

1277
01:25:55,524 --> 01:25:56,524
No.

1278
01:25:59,153 --> 01:26:04,115
From here, I think, the wound should look
consistent with the story that I shall tell.

1279
01:26:13,501 --> 01:26:14,501
Help!

1280
01:26:20,049 --> 01:26:23,218
And so Ethelred,
Eighth Duke of Chalfont,

1281
01:26:23,511 --> 01:26:26,304
duly came to his place in the family vault.

1282
01:26:30,976 --> 01:26:33,428
There were few D'Ascoynes
left to mourn him.

1283
01:26:33,528 --> 01:26:37,557
My employer, who was Ninth Duke of Chalfont
for the shortest possible period,

1284
01:26:37,657 --> 01:26:41,152
having expired of shock on hearing
that he had succeeded to the title.

1285
01:26:43,447 --> 01:26:47,951
And so, I became
the 10th Duke of Chalfont.

1286
01:26:51,539 --> 01:26:54,950
Fortunately, the Ninth Duke
had found time before he expired

1287
01:26:55,050 --> 01:26:58,419
to make a will bequeathing to me
his interests in the business.

1288
01:27:01,257 --> 01:27:02,841
You may remove that.

1289
01:27:11,183 --> 01:27:14,594
A day or two later,
an affecting little feudal ceremony took place

1290
01:27:14,694 --> 01:27:16,429
to welcome me into residence at the castle.

1291
01:27:16,529 --> 01:27:19,850
And I promise you
that my first consideration,

1292
01:27:19,950 --> 01:27:24,529
and that of Mrs D'Ascoyne, who has done me
the honour to consent to be my bride,

1293
01:27:25,114 --> 01:27:29,901
will be the welfare of the estate
and of the people who live on it.

1294
01:27:30,001 --> 01:27:32,245
God bless you all.

1295
01:27:39,587 --> 01:27:41,288
Long live His Grace!

1296
01:27:41,388 --> 01:27:43,006
Long live His Grace.

1297
01:27:50,014 --> 01:27:52,632
Pennyman, Your Grace,
from Sprockett's Farm.

1298
01:27:52,732 --> 01:27:54,342
Mrs Pennyman.

1299
01:27:54,442 --> 01:27:56,352
My son, Tom, from Sprockett's Farm.

1300
01:27:57,021 --> 01:27:59,480
Mr Wyvold, from Sprockett's Farm.

1301
01:28:00,941 --> 01:28:02,525
Sprockett's Farm?

1302
01:28:03,986 --> 01:28:06,321
No, Your Grace. From Scotland Yard.

1303
01:28:08,991 --> 01:28:10,533
Scotland Yard?

1304
01:28:11,285 --> 01:28:13,161
A matter of some delicacy.

1305
01:28:19,001 --> 01:28:20,501
Follow me, please.

1306
01:28:21,003 --> 01:28:24,505
The blow was so sudden
that I found it hard to collect my thoughts.

1307
01:28:26,217 --> 01:28:28,092
Which of them could it be?

1308
01:28:28,886 --> 01:28:32,430
Young Ascoyne? Henry? Ethelred?

1309
01:28:33,307 --> 01:28:36,635
The parson? The general?

1310
01:28:36,735 --> 01:28:38,303
Lady Agatha?

1311
01:28:38,403 --> 01:28:40,521
Or could it be all of them?

1312
01:28:45,694 --> 01:28:46,694
Now.

1313
01:28:47,120 --> 01:28:49,940
You are, I take it,
His Grace, the Duke of Chalfont?

1314
01:28:50,040 --> 01:28:51,040
I am.

1315
01:28:51,249 --> 01:28:55,737
I am Detective Inspector Burgoyne
of the Criminal Investigation Department.

1316
01:28:55,837 --> 01:28:58,197
And I hold a warrant for your arrest
on a charge of murder.

1317
01:28:58,582 --> 01:28:59,749
Murder?

1318
01:29:00,459 --> 01:29:02,077
Of murdering Mr Lionel Holland at...

1319
01:29:02,177 --> 01:29:03,328
Murdering whom?

1320
01:29:03,428 --> 01:29:04,955
Mr Lionel Holland

1321
01:29:05,055 --> 01:29:08,458
at number 242 Connaught Square,
Bayswater

1322
01:29:08,558 --> 01:29:10,718
on the 17th of October last.

1323
01:29:21,397 --> 01:29:24,683
Utterly bewildered,
I tried to fathom what series of events

1324
01:29:24,783 --> 01:29:27,944
could conceivably have led
to this not-very-amusing irony.

1325
01:29:28,404 --> 01:29:30,730
I could only suppose that Lionel
had actually carried out

1326
01:29:30,830 --> 01:29:32,573
that drunken threat of suicide.

1327
01:29:33,784 --> 01:29:35,994
But how then had the blame fallen on me?

1328
01:29:36,662 --> 01:29:39,990
Time alone, and the trial,
would reveal the answer.

1329
01:29:40,090 --> 01:29:43,960
Seeing no reason to forego any of
the available privileges of my rank...

1330
01:29:48,716 --> 01:29:51,626
I exercised my right to be tried
before the House of Lords.

1331
01:29:51,726 --> 01:29:56,298
Louis D'Ascoyne Mazzini, Duke of Chalfont,

1332
01:29:56,398 --> 01:29:59,267
you, as a peer of England,
are indicted for murder.

1333
01:30:00,144 --> 01:30:01,845
How say you, Your Grace?

1334
01:30:01,945 --> 01:30:05,815
Are you guilty of the felony with which
you are charged or not guilty?

1335
01:30:06,358 --> 01:30:08,693
- Not guilty.
- How will you be tried?

1336
01:30:10,362 --> 01:30:15,199
- By God and my peers.
- God send Your Grace a good deliverance.

1337
01:30:15,617 --> 01:30:20,238
It shall be the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth

1338
01:30:20,338 --> 01:30:21,914
so help me God.

1339
01:30:22,583 --> 01:30:26,244
Mrs Holland, will you tell
Their Lordships in your own words

1340
01:30:26,344 --> 01:30:28,659
the substance of the conversation
you had with your husband

1341
01:30:28,759 --> 01:30:30,590
the evening before his death?

1342
01:30:32,426 --> 01:30:35,595
He told me that Louis... the prisoner,

1343
01:30:36,388 --> 01:30:39,507
was coming to see him the next day
on a rather delicate matter.

1344
01:30:39,607 --> 01:30:41,601
Did he indicate what that matter was?

1345
01:30:43,771 --> 01:30:46,856
He had discovered that
the prisoner and I had been...

1346
01:30:48,400 --> 01:30:50,360
Had been on terms of intimacy?

1347
01:30:51,779 --> 01:30:54,447
- Yes.
- And what was his attitude?

1348
01:30:55,616 --> 01:30:58,380
He felt that the correct thing to do
was to tell him to his face

1349
01:30:58,480 --> 01:31:01,287
that he intended to start
proceedings for divorce.

1350
01:31:01,955 --> 01:31:03,385
From your knowledge of the prisoner

1351
01:31:03,485 --> 01:31:05,875
how would you expect him
to receive that news?

1352
01:31:07,461 --> 01:31:09,796
I should expect him to be very angry.

1353
01:31:10,714 --> 01:31:14,133
Now he was heir to a dukedom,
he had no more use for me.

1354
01:31:14,468 --> 01:31:17,387
I see. He was trying to discard you.

1355
01:31:18,055 --> 01:31:19,055
Yes.

1356
01:31:19,264 --> 01:31:22,600
Mrs Holland, I apologise for submitting you
to this ordeal

1357
01:31:23,268 --> 01:31:27,105
but will you tell Their Lordships
how you found your husband's body?

1358
01:31:29,483 --> 01:31:32,235
I came back about 4:30.

1359
01:31:34,822 --> 01:31:38,408
Their Lordships have no objection
to the witness being seated.

1360
01:31:42,830 --> 01:31:44,414
Yes, Mrs Holland?

1361
01:31:46,291 --> 01:31:48,501
I came back about 4:30.

1362
01:31:49,169 --> 01:31:51,504
I went into my husband's study.

1363
01:31:52,256 --> 01:31:54,757
He was lying on the floor

1364
01:31:55,759 --> 01:31:57,927
with a dagger stuck in his chest.

1365
01:31:58,637 --> 01:32:00,179
One last question, Mrs Holland.

1366
01:32:00,848 --> 01:32:04,350
Had your husband ever, at any time,
threatened suicide?

1367
01:32:05,352 --> 01:32:07,979
- Never.
- Thank you, Mrs Holland.

1368
01:32:11,150 --> 01:32:13,518
My client craves
Their Lordships' permission

1369
01:32:13,618 --> 01:32:15,528
to cross-examine the witness himself.

1370
01:32:16,196 --> 01:32:18,197
Their Lordships grant their permission.

1371
01:32:21,869 --> 01:32:25,864
Mrs Holland, you understand
the meaning of being on oath?

1372
01:32:25,964 --> 01:32:27,832
Of course.

1373
01:32:29,543 --> 01:32:33,171
You realise that a life may depend upon
the truthfulness of your evidence?

1374
01:32:35,299 --> 01:32:36,299
Yes.

1375
01:32:38,552 --> 01:32:41,216
I put it to you that your story
of your conversation with your husband

1376
01:32:41,316 --> 01:32:43,798
on the night before his death
is a complete fabrication.

1377
01:32:43,898 --> 01:32:45,349
It is not.

1378
01:32:46,560 --> 01:32:48,811
I put it to you
that your husband committed suicide.

1379
01:32:49,229 --> 01:32:52,064
He would never have done that
without leaving a message for me.

1380
01:32:52,191 --> 01:32:54,066
Can you swear that he did not?

1381
01:32:55,402 --> 01:32:57,403
The police searched the room
very thoroughly.

1382
01:32:58,989 --> 01:33:00,740
They didn't find anything.

1383
01:33:02,242 --> 01:33:06,829
I suggest that your evidence is a tissue of lies
dictated by motives of revenge.

1384
01:33:11,877 --> 01:33:13,669
It is not.

1385
01:33:14,254 --> 01:33:15,747
It is not.

1386
01:33:15,847 --> 01:33:19,751
I presume that the prisoner has some
purpose in these submissions

1387
01:33:19,851 --> 01:33:21,719
other than that of distressing the witness.

1388
01:33:22,387 --> 01:33:24,555
My purpose, my lord,
is to determine the truth.

1389
01:33:25,516 --> 01:33:28,768
That, Your Grace,
is the whole purpose of this assembly.

1390
01:33:31,104 --> 01:33:35,024
...the whole truth and nothing but the truth,
so help me God.

1391
01:33:38,570 --> 01:33:42,023
You're Edith D'Ascoyne Mazzini,
Duchess of Chalfont?

1392
01:33:42,123 --> 01:33:43,123
I am.

1393
01:33:43,458 --> 01:33:46,285
When and where did you become
the wife of the accused?

1394
01:33:46,954 --> 01:33:49,622
Yesterday morning, in Pentonville Prison.

1395
01:33:51,124 --> 01:33:54,126
I wanted to publish irrevocably
before the whole world

1396
01:33:54,878 --> 01:33:56,295
my faith in his innocence.

1397
01:33:58,257 --> 01:34:00,383
I wanted to show by my marriage

1398
01:34:01,301 --> 01:34:03,711
that though he was led astray,
as I believe

1399
01:34:03,811 --> 01:34:06,714
by that innate kindliness
and courtesy of his

1400
01:34:06,814 --> 01:34:09,767
which made it so hard for him to rebuff
the advances of a woman,

1401
01:34:10,477 --> 01:34:12,053
I nevertheless regard him as a man

1402
01:34:12,153 --> 01:34:14,564
to whom I can happily entrust
the remainder of my life.

1403
01:34:15,148 --> 01:34:17,483
I am not alone
in these opinions of him.

1404
01:34:18,110 --> 01:34:19,915
My late husband, Henry,

1405
01:34:20,015 --> 01:34:22,113
and his late Uncle Ethelred,
the Eighth Duke

1406
01:34:23,156 --> 01:34:26,158
both unfortunately
unable to testify today...

1407
01:34:27,160 --> 01:34:31,093
These and other members
of the D'Ascoyne family, had they been alive

1408
01:34:31,193 --> 01:34:33,958
would, I know, have echoed
every word that I have said.

1409
01:34:34,668 --> 01:34:36,502
Thank you, Your Grace.

1410
01:34:37,838 --> 01:34:39,678
The deceased was a client
of the banking house

1411
01:34:39,798 --> 01:34:41,841
of which you are chairman
and managing director.

1412
01:34:41,967 --> 01:34:43,084
He was.

1413
01:34:43,184 --> 01:34:47,442
In the normal course of business transactions
he would have come to see you at your office.

1414
01:34:47,542 --> 01:34:48,542
Yes.

1415
01:34:48,710 --> 01:34:50,946
Instead of which,
he asked you to go to his house.

1416
01:34:51,046 --> 01:34:52,046
Yes.

1417
01:34:52,193 --> 01:34:54,679
He invited you to his house
to discuss business.

1418
01:34:54,779 --> 01:34:55,779
Yes.

1419
01:34:55,947 --> 01:34:58,024
And you ask Their Lordships
to believe that?

1420
01:34:58,609 --> 01:34:59,609
Yes.

1421
01:35:00,360 --> 01:35:02,520
In the course of this, business discussion

1422
01:35:02,620 --> 01:35:06,032
he burst into tears, fell on his knees
and threatened suicide.

1423
01:35:06,158 --> 01:35:09,035
- Yes.
- Is that usual in business discussions?

1424
01:35:09,536 --> 01:35:12,155
- Not usual. No.
- But it happened on this occasion.

1425
01:35:12,255 --> 01:35:15,499
- Yes.
- And you ask Their Lordships to believe that?

1426
01:35:16,001 --> 01:35:17,001
Yes.

1427
01:35:17,677 --> 01:35:20,413
Then this, business discussion
became so heated

1428
01:35:20,513 --> 01:35:23,708
that blows were exchanged
and he made a murderous attack on you.

1429
01:35:23,808 --> 01:35:24,808
Yes.

1430
01:35:25,059 --> 01:35:27,837
- Is that usual in business discussion?
- No.

1431
01:35:27,937 --> 01:35:31,257
- But it happened on this occasion.
- Yes.

1432
01:35:31,357 --> 01:35:35,519
- And you ask Their Lordships to believe that?
- Yes.

1433
01:35:36,271 --> 01:35:37,396
Very well.

1434
01:35:38,231 --> 01:35:41,692
You've heard of cases of a jealous husband
and his wife's lover coming to blows?

1435
01:35:42,194 --> 01:35:44,111
- Yes.
- Frequently?

1436
01:35:44,738 --> 01:35:47,490
It is one of the clichés
of the cheaper kind of fiction.

1437
01:35:51,286 --> 01:35:54,697
I put it to you that, in this case,
it happened not in fiction,

1438
01:35:54,797 --> 01:35:55,990
but in fact.

1439
01:35:56,090 --> 01:35:59,285
- I put it to you that it did not.
- I put it to you further

1440
01:35:59,385 --> 01:36:03,247
that being unaware at that time
of your future wife's forgiving nature

1441
01:36:03,347 --> 01:36:06,209
you assumed that if you were cited
in a divorce suit

1442
01:36:06,309 --> 01:36:09,879
it would ruin your chances
of making this advantageous match

1443
01:36:09,979 --> 01:36:12,431
with a wealthy and beautiful woman.

1444
01:36:13,558 --> 01:36:15,218
No. Not at all.

1445
01:36:15,318 --> 01:36:19,472
Still, you were proposing
to discard Mrs Holland.

1446
01:36:19,572 --> 01:36:20,572
No.

1447
01:36:21,115 --> 01:36:24,485
Even though you were
about to be married to the other lady?

1448
01:36:31,743 --> 01:36:35,204
I must confess to feeling
quite intrigued as to their decision.

1449
01:36:44,464 --> 01:36:49,510
My lords, the question
for Your Lordships is this...

1450
01:36:50,721 --> 01:36:52,755
Is the prisoner guilty

1451
01:36:52,855 --> 01:36:56,467
of the felony whereof
he stands indicted

1452
01:36:56,567 --> 01:36:58,561
or not guilty?

1453
01:37:01,940 --> 01:37:06,940
Guilty, upon mine honour.

1454
01:37:18,123 --> 01:37:22,201
I considered it both seemly and touching
that my dear wife should visit me

1455
01:37:22,301 --> 01:37:25,129
as she did this morning,
to make her farewells.

1456
01:37:26,423 --> 01:37:29,667
Your arrival, on the other hand,
appears to me unseemly

1457
01:37:29,767 --> 01:37:31,719
and tasteless in the extreme.

1458
01:37:32,471 --> 01:37:36,307
I couldn't bear my last sight of you
to be that look of hatred you gave me

1459
01:37:36,433 --> 01:37:38,184
as you went out from the trial.

1460
01:37:39,144 --> 01:37:43,306
In view of the fact that your evidence
had put the rope round my neck

1461
01:37:43,406 --> 01:37:46,267
you could hardly expect
a glance of warm affection.

1462
01:37:46,367 --> 01:37:49,612
- Isn't there any hope?
- What hope could there be?

1463
01:37:50,947 --> 01:37:53,149
I was only thinking.

1464
01:37:53,249 --> 01:37:55,576
That question you asked at the trial

1465
01:37:56,453 --> 01:37:59,038
about Lionel leaving a suicide note...

1466
01:38:00,290 --> 01:38:03,701
Suppose he did?
Suppose that one were found

1467
01:38:03,801 --> 01:38:06,712
even now, this last evening?

1468
01:38:07,589 --> 01:38:11,091
- It would savour of a miracle.
- Miracles can happen.

1469
01:38:12,260 --> 01:38:14,094
Miracles could happen.

1470
01:38:18,809 --> 01:38:20,009
I see.

1471
01:38:21,561 --> 01:38:24,430
Oh, strange, isn't it, how things turn out?

1472
01:38:24,530 --> 01:38:27,149
Now, if you had married me,
instead of Edith...

1473
01:38:27,984 --> 01:38:30,611
Or you had married me,
instead of Lionel.

1474
01:38:31,363 --> 01:38:32,814
He would still be alive,

1475
01:38:32,914 --> 01:38:35,866
and you wouldn't be going
to be hanged tomorrow morning.

1476
01:38:36,868 --> 01:38:39,787
Unless, of course,
you've murdered somebody else.

1477
01:38:44,042 --> 01:38:46,038
All of which is rather beside the point,
isn't it?

1478
01:38:46,138 --> 01:38:47,211
Is it?

1479
01:38:49,840 --> 01:38:52,166
Do you remember in the old days

1480
01:38:52,266 --> 01:38:55,503
how we used to play
Eeny, meeny, miny, mo?

1481
01:38:55,603 --> 01:39:00,307
- Catch a nigger by his toe.
- If he hollers, let him go. Out goes he.

1482
01:39:01,977 --> 01:39:05,521
Quite a lot of little niggers have gone out,
haven't they, one way or another?

1483
01:39:06,523 --> 01:39:09,483
And every one of them a D'Ascoyne.

1484
01:39:13,488 --> 01:39:16,198
We do seem to be
a very short-lived family.

1485
01:39:17,158 --> 01:39:20,736
Of course, Edith is only
a D'Ascoyne by marriage

1486
01:39:20,836 --> 01:39:23,205
so I suppose
her prospects are better.

1487
01:39:26,418 --> 01:39:27,918
Except for a miracle.

1488
01:39:28,587 --> 01:39:30,913
Like the other one
we were talking about.

1489
01:39:31,013 --> 01:39:34,834
So there it was.
She would find the suicide note

1490
01:39:34,934 --> 01:39:37,511
if I, in return, would murder Edith.

1491
01:39:38,597 --> 01:39:41,056
So we now have two miracles in mind, do we?

1492
01:39:41,766 --> 01:39:42,766
Yes.

1493
01:39:42,984 --> 01:39:46,437
I wonder if they are, in any way,
dependent on each other?

1494
01:39:48,106 --> 01:39:50,274
I suppose perhaps they might be.

1495
01:39:52,277 --> 01:39:54,069
What do you think?

1496
01:39:55,864 --> 01:39:57,239
Time's up.

1497
01:40:02,120 --> 01:40:03,829
What do you think?

1498
01:40:05,248 --> 01:40:09,335
Poor Edith. I'm afraid all this is going
to take years off her life.

1499
01:40:13,006 --> 01:40:16,425
- Au revoir, Louis.
- Au revoir.

1500
01:40:17,636 --> 01:40:19,545
What could I do but accept?

1501
01:40:19,645 --> 01:40:22,757
After all, I could always decide afterwards

1502
01:40:22,857 --> 01:40:25,885
which of these two little niggers
would finally have to go.

1503
01:40:25,985 --> 01:40:27,478
Dear Edith.

1504
01:40:28,188 --> 01:40:30,306
Captivating Sibella.

1505
01:40:30,406 --> 01:40:34,026
How different they were,
and how well I knew each of them.

1506
01:40:34,903 --> 01:40:36,278
Or so I thought.

1507
01:40:37,113 --> 01:40:39,949
But the night has gone by
and nothing has happened.

1508
01:40:40,533 --> 01:40:42,777
It is now but a few minutes to 8:00.

1509
01:40:42,877 --> 01:40:46,948
And I realise that Sibella
came yesterday merely to tantalise,

1510
01:40:47,048 --> 01:40:50,034
to raise my hopes
in order to dash them again.

1511
01:40:50,134 --> 01:40:52,586
How unlike me not to have guessed.

1512
01:40:53,421 --> 01:40:57,257
But, after all, how very like Sibella.

1513
01:41:21,658 --> 01:41:22,992
Already?

1514
01:41:24,494 --> 01:41:26,696
I'll tell you who time gallops withal.

1515
01:41:26,796 --> 01:41:28,406
"With a thief to the gallows,

1516
01:41:28,506 --> 01:41:33,669
"for though he tread as softly as foot can fall,
he thinks himself too soon there."

1517
01:41:34,796 --> 01:41:36,330
If you have any last instructions...

1518
01:41:36,430 --> 01:41:40,217
I think, Colonel, it only remains
to thank you for your many kindnesses.

1519
01:41:40,927 --> 01:41:42,594
Won't you introduce our friend?

1520
01:41:44,556 --> 01:41:47,933
Mr Elliott, His Grace, the Duke of Chalfont.

1521
01:41:49,936 --> 01:41:51,437
Good morning, Your Grace.

1522
01:41:52,355 --> 01:41:53,981
This won't take a moment.

1523
01:41:54,691 --> 01:41:58,436
First, if Your Grace will pardon the liberty

1524
01:41:58,536 --> 01:42:01,188
I should like to read some verses

1525
01:42:01,288 --> 01:42:05,075
composed by myself for use
on these melancholy occasions.

1526
01:42:06,453 --> 01:42:08,912
- Your Grace permits?
- With pleasure.

1527
01:42:14,294 --> 01:42:16,920
"My friend, reflect.

1528
01:42:17,505 --> 01:42:19,705
Oh. Pardon.

1529
01:42:20,925 --> 01:42:23,135
"Your Grace, reflect.

1530
01:42:23,720 --> 01:42:28,974
"While yet of mortal breath,
some span however short, is left to thee

1531
01:42:29,684 --> 01:42:34,096
"how brief the total span twixt birth and death

1532
01:42:34,196 --> 01:42:39,068
"how long thy coming tenure of eternity.

1533
01:42:41,321 --> 01:42:44,073
"Your Grace, prepare..."

1534
01:42:48,244 --> 01:42:49,844
Colonel.

1535
01:42:55,126 --> 01:42:56,368
Your Grace,

1536
01:42:56,468 --> 01:42:58,436
I am happy to inform you
that a telephone communication

1537
01:42:58,536 --> 01:43:00,331
has just been received from the Home Office.

1538
01:43:00,431 --> 01:43:03,417
A note has been found,
undoubtedly in Mr Holland's handwriting

1539
01:43:03,517 --> 01:43:06,295
expressing his intention to commit suicide.

1540
01:43:06,395 --> 01:43:07,513
It is a miracle.

1541
01:43:08,556 --> 01:43:11,225
Yes. It is like a miracle.

1542
01:43:12,602 --> 01:43:14,149
Pending receipt of further instructions

1543
01:43:14,249 --> 01:43:17,564
I will try to make you reasonably
comfortable in my quarters.

1544
01:43:18,817 --> 01:43:21,360
- Good morning.
- Good morning, Your Grace, sir.

1545
01:43:29,452 --> 01:43:33,330
I assure you I have never been
more happy to be relieved of an official duty.

1546
01:43:34,457 --> 01:43:35,833
Poor Elliott.

1547
01:43:36,376 --> 01:43:38,702
If he had not insisted
on reading that abominable poem

1548
01:43:38,802 --> 01:43:42,162
he would have had me neatly dangling
at the end of his rope before the news arrived.

1549
01:43:43,383 --> 01:43:45,251
He was so looking forward to it.

1550
01:43:45,351 --> 01:43:47,465
I understand, Your Grace,
from the men on duty outside

1551
01:43:47,565 --> 01:43:49,797
that a large crowd awaits your leaving.

1552
01:43:49,897 --> 01:43:51,705
Having robbed them
of the pleasure of my death

1553
01:43:51,805 --> 01:43:53,654
the least I can do is to let them see me alive.

1554
01:43:54,435 --> 01:43:57,638
Including, by the way,
not only Her Grace, the duchess

1555
01:43:57,738 --> 01:43:59,473
but also Mrs Holland.

1556
01:43:59,573 --> 01:44:00,573
Oh.

1557
01:44:01,609 --> 01:44:03,185
How does the song go?

1558
01:44:03,285 --> 01:44:07,523
"How happy could I be with either
were t'other dear charmer away."

1559
01:44:07,623 --> 01:44:08,649
Well, good-bye.

1560
01:44:08,749 --> 01:44:10,701
Good-bye, Your Grace.

1561
01:44:43,443 --> 01:44:45,853
"How happy could I be with either

1562
01:44:45,953 --> 01:44:48,155
"were t'other dear charmer away."

1563
01:44:50,325 --> 01:44:52,576
- Your Grace.
- Yes?

1564
01:44:53,286 --> 01:44:55,696
I represent the magazine Titbits

1565
01:44:55,796 --> 01:44:57,656
by whom I'm commissioned
to approach you

1566
01:44:57,756 --> 01:45:00,042
for the publication rights
of your memoirs.

1567
01:45:00,501 --> 01:45:02,002
My memoirs?

1568
01:45:03,129 --> 01:45:05,329
My memoirs.