unnatural death. He believed his wife wanted to kill him.”
“And?”
“Some time later, he died of a tropical disease—the same one that killed your grandfather, the seventeenth Earl. So the money went to his wife, and I don’t know who else. Now the heirs have the notion that your uncle wants to prove that the disease that killed Roscoe was artificially induced by them. If he succeeded, the entire fortune would be his. They imagine that his secret laboratory experiments are directed to this end. And that fear could be behind their attempts on his life.”
Cynthia weighed this up.
“That’s ridiculous,” she said at last. “His biological work is purely theoretical. He’s explained it all to me. He’s grappling withthe fundamental questions of biology—the nature of life, the difference between what lives and what doesn’t, and what transitional stages might possibly exist between the two.”
“But that isn’t enough to reassure the Roscoe heirs.”
“True. But I really can’t imagine … I cannot think of a single possible reason why he would want to lay hands on all that money. I mean, we’re not exactly paupers. It would be quite out of keeping for an Earl of Gwynedd to take active steps to increase his personal wealth. It’s simply not in his character. Wealth can only be inherited, and then only from family.”
“There may of course be other motives … revenge, retribution … or God knows what.”
“That’s totally improbable. There’s some other secret business here, Doctor. Who knows what ancient blood-feud? … It’s as if every single one of our ancestors has been gathering here, these last few days … Pierce Gwyn Mawr is prophesying death and destruction, and the midnight rider has been seen … ”
“Does the Earl have any enemies?”
“I’ve no idea. The fact is, I don’t know very much about him. Osborne and I have only lived here for three years, since our mother died. Before that, I hardly ever saw him. All I know is that he’s the most magnificent being on earth. The great aristocrats of the past must have been like him. They didn’t have to do or say anything remarkable: their mere existence revealed a finer form of life, above and beyond this one. It’s impossible to say why everyone holds him in such high esteem. But if noble blood does stand for anything, he’s the living incarnation of it. I just can’t believe he could have enemies. He’s too far above everyone else for there to be any serious differences; though of course, by the same token, he hasn’t any friends.”
I confess I too felt that the Earl was as she had described him. Some people are born to be served willingly by others.
It isn’t easy to explain these unprovoked sympathies, the whole complex magic that made Llanvygan so deeply attractive to me. No doubt there was an element of snobbery in it, a degree of intellectual curiosity, and a bit of love too. And there do exist in the soul such feudal passions as service, respect and devotion.
Had I been a knight errant, I should have offered my services tothe lord of the castle, and asked the lady for a ribbon to wear on my shield. Oh to be that happy man, a knight errant!
I kissed her hand. She stood in the gothic arch of the window gazing at me, transfigured by emotion. She was the maid of the castle, I her knight. I mouthed a few incoherent words, in which there was not just a declaration of love but a blessed revival, from under the rubble of years, of my better self. What a shame that those moments when man is noble and pure and akin to the angels are so transient, so fleeting, while that complicated nonentity the Ego is always with us—of which one can speak only in terms of protective tenderness and gentle irony.
By some miracle, the next few days passed calmly and agreeably. Nothing remarkable happened, and I was able to sleep at night. There was no more talk of midnight riders.
The summer was still magnificent, the park as
“And?”
“Some time later, he died of a tropical disease—the same one that killed your grandfather, the seventeenth Earl. So the money went to his wife, and I don’t know who else. Now the heirs have the notion that your uncle wants to prove that the disease that killed Roscoe was artificially induced by them. If he succeeded, the entire fortune would be his. They imagine that his secret laboratory experiments are directed to this end. And that fear could be behind their attempts on his life.”
Cynthia weighed this up.
“That’s ridiculous,” she said at last. “His biological work is purely theoretical. He’s explained it all to me. He’s grappling withthe fundamental questions of biology—the nature of life, the difference between what lives and what doesn’t, and what transitional stages might possibly exist between the two.”
“But that isn’t enough to reassure the Roscoe heirs.”
“True. But I really can’t imagine … I cannot think of a single possible reason why he would want to lay hands on all that money. I mean, we’re not exactly paupers. It would be quite out of keeping for an Earl of Gwynedd to take active steps to increase his personal wealth. It’s simply not in his character. Wealth can only be inherited, and then only from family.”
“There may of course be other motives … revenge, retribution … or God knows what.”
“That’s totally improbable. There’s some other secret business here, Doctor. Who knows what ancient blood-feud? … It’s as if every single one of our ancestors has been gathering here, these last few days … Pierce Gwyn Mawr is prophesying death and destruction, and the midnight rider has been seen … ”
“Does the Earl have any enemies?”
“I’ve no idea. The fact is, I don’t know very much about him. Osborne and I have only lived here for three years, since our mother died. Before that, I hardly ever saw him. All I know is that he’s the most magnificent being on earth. The great aristocrats of the past must have been like him. They didn’t have to do or say anything remarkable: their mere existence revealed a finer form of life, above and beyond this one. It’s impossible to say why everyone holds him in such high esteem. But if noble blood does stand for anything, he’s the living incarnation of it. I just can’t believe he could have enemies. He’s too far above everyone else for there to be any serious differences; though of course, by the same token, he hasn’t any friends.”
I confess I too felt that the Earl was as she had described him. Some people are born to be served willingly by others.
It isn’t easy to explain these unprovoked sympathies, the whole complex magic that made Llanvygan so deeply attractive to me. No doubt there was an element of snobbery in it, a degree of intellectual curiosity, and a bit of love too. And there do exist in the soul such feudal passions as service, respect and devotion.
Had I been a knight errant, I should have offered my services tothe lord of the castle, and asked the lady for a ribbon to wear on my shield. Oh to be that happy man, a knight errant!
I kissed her hand. She stood in the gothic arch of the window gazing at me, transfigured by emotion. She was the maid of the castle, I her knight. I mouthed a few incoherent words, in which there was not just a declaration of love but a blessed revival, from under the rubble of years, of my better self. What a shame that those moments when man is noble and pure and akin to the angels are so transient, so fleeting, while that complicated nonentity the Ego is always with us—of which one can speak only in terms of protective tenderness and gentle irony.
By some miracle, the next few days passed calmly and agreeably. Nothing remarkable happened, and I was able to sleep at night. There was no more talk of midnight riders.
The summer was still magnificent, the park as
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