Number 10 (1983) s01e01 Episode Script

1 Don't I know you, my dear? Yeah.
And I know you, too, old Glad Eyes.
And I'm not having any, so you can go and try your luck elsewhere.
Oh, but You'd be well rewarded, you know that? Aye.
I do.
And I'm still not having any.
Very well, dear lady.
I never was one to force my attentions.
Don't listen to him! The black-eyed devil.
He'd charm the birds off the trees.
It's when he's got you down off the tree, that's when you'd want to look out.
I'm telling you, you'll regret it.
I've had some.
You won't be sorry, ladies, I do assure you.
This evening could be a turning point in your lives.
Just don't say you haven't been warned! Now then, Susan.
I know London's a long way from Somerset.
We're not so different here, you know.
We're not all demons and ogres in London.
Yes, ma'am.
I'm sure you're right.
It's just my father, he warned me about all the wickedness and sinfulness of London.
Well, you won't find any of it in this house.
Now come along.
Sit down here, give me your coat.
Agatha, let's have that tea now.
You know what a scullery maid's duties are? No, ma'am.
Not exactly.
Well, we'll have a nice cup of tea and I'll tell you.
Now then, Susan.
You do know where you've come to, don't you? No, ma'am.
Not exactly.
Well, you do know that this is the home of the Prime Minister? That it's a very great honour.
Great heavens, girl! If you weren't my sister's own daughter Thank you, Agatha.
Oh, I do appreciate it, like.
Do you what a prime minister is? No, ma'am.
Not exactly.
He's the most important gentleman in the country.
Well, here we are, ladies.
Here is my humble abode, such as it is.
It's in terrible repair, of course.
Has been for the last 200 years.
Jerry-built, you know.
- Don't want no trouble.
- We'll end up in the bleedin' Tower.
- Ah, good evening, Hampton.
- Good evening, Mr Gladstone, sir.
Oh, my Gawd.
- The kitchen, sir? - If you please, Hampton.
Ladies.
The kitchen? First thing in the morning, I want you to rake out the fire Oh, it's Mr Gladstone.
Stand up.
Excuse me.
There.
Thank you very much.
Oh! Harlots! They be harlots! I've seen 'em like, in drawings in the magazines.
And the preacher last Sunday, he were on about the Scarlet Woman of Babylon and that.
- Who is she? - You better watch your tongue, my girl.
I'm in one of them brothels.
That's where I am! I've been captured into a brothel! I'm fetching the police! - Susan, let's have a bit of common sense! - Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! Here's a who's who and a what's what.
Now then, my dear.
Quick as a lamp lighter, tell me what all this hydra's about.
I am Mrs Gladstone.
She'd tell you a great deal sooner, my dear, if you spoke plain English to her! Instead of that bizarre lingo that you and your family chatter.
Mrs Gladstone, I don't understand.
I was told this was the home of the most important gentleman in the country.
So it is, my dear, no matter who may be living here at the time.
Though it is particularly true at the moment.
Oh, my dear Cathy! - Now, come and sit down.
- But It is the duty of all of us in this life to help those who are less fortunate than others.
That is what Mr Gladstone tries to do, and I do my best to help him.
Here, who says we're less fortunate than anyone else? Oh, I'm quite sure that my wife meant nothing pejorative.
I don't recollect complaining.
Mary, Mrs Hampton.
Agatha, tea and pound cake for all of us.
Everyone.
Ah And meanwhile, sisters, brethren in honour of our guests who are among us here this evening, we will sing a verse of Rock Of Ages.
You too, Hampton.
You have a particularly fine baritone.
Are we all ready? Rock of Ages, cleft for me Let me hide myself in Thee You must know the words.
Everybody knows this.
Let the water and the blood From Thy riven side which flowed Be of sin the double cure Cleanse me from its guilt and power Good! Very good, splendid.
Well, now, I think we've all deserved our little collation.
Everybody, sit, if you please.
Oh, this looks good.
I haven't had any grub since noon.
For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful.
- Amen.
- Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Think he'll pull it off this time? They don't look too promising to me.
With Mr Gladstone, you never know.
Well, now, Bessie, Annie - if you will permit me so to address you I've got you.
You're the one they call Glad Eyes.
Old Glad Eyes.
Here, is that really your wife? Yes, it is indeed.
We work together a great deal of the time.
But, er Not all the time, eh? No, naturally not all the time.
Sometimes she has to be away.
And then the, er, mice will play, eh? I hear tell that you're a talker.
You like to talk about things.
I, a talker? Oh, no, I'm not a talker.
Well, not under these circumstances, though I have been known to string a few words together in my time.
Oh, no.
Some of the girls I've tried to assist dooccasionally find it helpful to unburden their souls, to describe their lives to me, as it were.
Now, have you anything you'd like to tell me? No.
Not off hand.
- Annie? - Oh, me neither.
Very well.
Well, as you may know, my wife and I are members of the Church Penitentiary Association For The Reclamation Of Fallen Women.
- Ooh, dear! - Yes.
Yes, it is a bit of a mouthful, is it not? However, we have founded the Clewer House of Mercy, the Newport Home of Refuge in Soho Square, the St Mary Magdalene House of Refuge in Paddington Mr Gladstone, sir, you've been very kind, and the tea and the cake was lovely, but You go there for a short stay.
Do you see? You're looked after by good women, I come and visit you whenever I have the time, and then you go back into society, refreshed and rehabilitated.
Not for me, if you don't mind, sir.
I feel nice and refreshed and re erm, whatsit right now as a matter of fact.
Very well.
But if ever you're in trouble or need of any kind, please don't hesitate to call on me.
Thank you very much, sir.
You're very kind.
We'll remember.
Annie? And, er, you're quite certain there's nothing we can do for you? Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Thank you.
I shall keep you in my mind and in my prayers.
Ah, Hampton.
Show these good ladies out, would you? And may I take it that for tonight, at least, you'll be going straight home? Well, as to that, sir, it's hard to say.
The Foreign Secretary is waiting to see you, sir.
Show him in, please.
O Lord, forgive me my failure with these two forlorn creatures this evening.
And give me the strength to continue my efforts.
- Lord Granville, sir.
- Ah.
Well, my dear G, it's not like you to risk ruining your digestion by rushing about at this hour.
I wouldn't jeopardise my reputation for idleness for anyone else.
Just had a telegram from Dublin.
More rioting in Armagh.
When is there not? Oh, Ireland, Ireland.
Is there never to be an end to it? We've been fighting them now for 300 years, longer.
Why can't we accept that they have the right to govern themselves and end it? End it! They're not exactly an easy people to help.
If I can't push Home Rule through this next session of Parliament, I shall resign.
Well, I'm not a well man! I'm 72 years of age and I'm fading fast.
Well, you'll be going down to the country at the weekend.
Yes, yes, I dare say I shall be down at Castle Hawarden, trying to conserve my strength.
If you please, sir.
You are asked for on the telephone.
- On the what? - Your wife had it put in last year, sir.
Oh, yes.
I dare say she did but I have decided not to take it up.
Tell whoever it is to telegraph.
Who is it, anyway? - A Mr Howard Vincent, sir.
- Who's he? He's head of some new department.
I think he said it was to do with the police.
- Criminal Investi - Criminal Investigation Department.
Quite so.
Quite so.
Policemen dressed like clerks.
Tell him I'll see him at Downing Street three o'clock on Monday.
- A personal detective? - That is the proposal, sir, yes.
Are you aware, Mr Vincent, that I won my last election via an unprecedentedly informal personal tour of Scotland accompanied solely by my wife with not a single detective in sight? Not in sight, sir, no.
Are you informing me, sir, that you had men lurking about whom I did not see? That is the purpose of a detective, sir.
To see and not be seen.
You are a formidable fellow, Mr Vincent.
We are living in turbulent times, sir.
You are deeply identified with the Irish question.
There are anarchists and revolutionaries active in other fields, too.
And you cannot have failed to have been informed that the incidence of bombings is going up.
Explosions, Mr Vincent, are the drums behind the symphony of British history.
We are singularly unmoved by loud noises.
Am I to take it, Prime Minister, that you decline the protection of a plain-clothes detective assigned exclusively to you? You are so to take it.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon, sir.
You appreciate, Prime Minister, that I come directly under the aegis of the Home Secretary in this matter? Oh.
You may leave Sir William Harcourt to me, Mr Vincent.
I fear you are not to be the PM's private peeler after all, Edwards.
- You mean he won't have me? - He won't have anybody.
He doesn't believe in it.
- Sir - Mm? Well, you don't suppose it could have anything to do with his charitable work? Among the girls, like.
Me breathing down his neck, making it a bit awkward, like.
I don't know! Wouldn't you like to sing it? My dear child, I would create a stampede from the room! Hey, leave some of that jelly for me, won't you? Gladstone, I fully agree with Eddie.
Without a detective you leave yourself open to great danger.
Master Vincent has been at you, Harcourt.
And at Eddie Hamilton here.
If as your private secretary I haven't the right to be concerned for your safety, - who has? - Ah, they have been badgering you, then! You are the first man in Europe! In my capacity as Home Secretary It is your duty to protect me, I know.
A politician must take chances! Gladstone, forgive me! I defer not only to political maniacs.
London is infested with footpads, sandbaggers, cut-throats, even women who can knot a scarf around your neck and strip you of your possessions without you being able to utter a sound or make a move to defend yourself! I should like to meet such a woman.
You would meet not one but three, acting in consort.
And your night walks make you a particular target.
I have been indulging in my night walks, as you call them, for nigh on 35 years, and I have never yet met a single woman who did not treat me with utmost courtesy.
Hello, my darling! Are you having a good party? - Yes, I am.
- Well, come over and meet these nice He has the most incredible energy, I understand.
I find myself without words to express it.
Medical opinion has it that he has the vitality of ten men.
Eight children was some protection, naturally.
And the carrying of them helped, of course.
Naturally.
And the nursing also.
No, not really.
William never believed in that as an impediment, I mean.
- Who's to say he was wrong? - Who indeed? Now you can ask him another question, and he'll waggle his right ear for yes and his left ear for no.
Will I have a pony for my birthday? Well, now, he'll need notice of that question.
Ask him another.
Ah, now, this is one we can all sing.
Come, everyone.
Katie wishes a choir! When You And I Were Young, Maggie Remember this? Mrs Bosty, I know that you know this one.
Hampton, I need you on the top line.
I wandered today to the hill, Maggie To watch the scene below The creek and the creaking old mill, Maggie As we used to long, long ago The green grove is gone from the hill, Maggie Where once the daisies sprung The creaking old mill is still, Maggie Since you and I were young Lucy, my dear! You're just in time! William is pining for a songfest.
Frederick, are you going to give us one of your solos? Well, I fear I'm not in very good voice.
There's fog outside.
Mrs Hampton.
Give Lord Frederick Cavendish one of your sumpy throat smoothers, prepared specially for your arrival.
Warm honey and port.
I would never refuse any concoction of Mrs Hampton's.
Lucy? grey, Maggie, as spray by the white breakers flung Oh, my dear! But to me you're as fair as you were, Maggie When you and I were young! Bravo, Freddie! Well sung, gentlemen.
Freddie! Come on, now, it's your turn.
Now that Father is dispatching you to Ireland we shall be missing you.
Only for a couple of days.
I'm going simply to keep my Permanent Undersecretary Mr Burke company.
- He does all the work.
- Oh, nonsense! Now, what shall he sing? The Bluebells Of Scotland? The Shepherd's Evening Song? Drink To Me Only? Drink To Me Only.
There we are.
Drink to me only with thine eyes And I will pledge with mine Or leave a kiss within the cup And I'll not ask for wine The thirst that from the soul doth rise Doth ask a drink divine Butchered? In broad daylight? Freddie? - Phoenix Park, Dublin.
- Ohh! - You'd better sit.
Hampton, a little brandy.
- Oh dear.
Does my husband know? He can't be found, ma'am.
I had hoped he'd be with you.
We dined at the Austrian Embassy.
Oh, thank you.
And then I went on to a reception at the Admiralty and he came home.
He should have been here a long time ago.
Good evening, Hampton.
Dearest Freddie Cavendish has been murdered.
By terrorists in Dublin.
Stabbed to death in Phoenix Park.
O Lord, look on with mercy and take into Thy love Thy good servant Frederick Cavendish who died this day in the service of his country.
Shine on him with Thy eternal light which washes away all sin and admit him into bliss everlasting.
- Amen.
- Amen.
They killed him.
Uncle William! How could they? Why Frederick? Why my love? What will I do? How will I live? Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
Oh, Lucy, dear child.
Dearest child.
There, there.
You must never blame yourself for sending him.
Oh, no.
There can be no question of that.
There.
Dear child, come with me.
Come with me.
There, there.
May I take it, then, Prime Minister, that in view of yesterday's tragedy, you will now agree to accept close police surveillance? I was under the impression I had already done so.
Well, not in so many words, Prime Minister.
You indicated acceptance of the general principle, yes, but a specific undertaking, I think not.
Are you doubting my word, sir? With all due respect, we hadn't had your word, sir! A great many words but not your word, sir! Will you or will you not accept a personal detective? Yes! Confound it, yes! I declare this meeting closed! God's teeth! It's like stalking a stag! - I'm still not sure the stag's at bay.
- You're leaving? He said he would accept the personal detective, he didn't say he would cooperate with him.
He's off again.
Well, he gave me the office at St James's.
I wasn't expecting it from him.
Another Fenian bomb.
And you lost him.
- But he's on their side! - Bombs don't know that! Here's a pretty mess.
A pretty mess indeed! Out night walking, yes, but not home yet? Nearly 3am! Who else knows, Eddie? I felt it my duty to inform yourself, Lord Granville and Lord Rosebery, Howard Vincent of the Criminal Investigation Department - and of course Mrs Gladstone.
- How's she taking it? You know Catherine.
In her eyes he can do no wrong.
She just murmured something in that private language of hers and went to bed.
She said, if I quote her accurately, that "it was very gaunt of him "and he must have the house'ums.
" She said what?! Roughly translated, I believe it means that it was rather irritating of him and he must have some political worries.
Political worries? I should think he will have if this little adventure gets out.
It could bring him down.
And if he goes, the Party goes with him.
His foes have started to dig.
I don't believe they'll find a thing.
The man's tooopen about it.
Three quarters of a miserably paid and highly bribable police force have witnessed his activities, and as yet noone's been able to buy any scandal from them.
He and his wife have set up institutions for these unfortunate creatures.
Lady Cavendish and other high-minded ladies have helped.
Lady Cavendish and other worthy ladies do not actively seek out prostitutes in their haunts and engage them in no doubt high-minded conversation.
Recently he has taken to following them inside their brothels.
It's incredible that no word of it has yet filtered down to the general populace.
But I fear for it every day.
Somebody's got to speak to him.
- Speak to him? - Mm.
My dear chap, one simply doesn't speak to the old man about things like that.
Yes, and nevertheless, it's got to be done.
Then you do it! He wouldn't listen to me.
He considers me far too frivolous.
No, Harcourt's your man.
He has the solemn countenance and stately port for it.
I refuse.
Point-blank.
But I have an alternative.
I believe that whoever does speak to him ought to be a man of the cloth, and I think I have just the man for the job.
His son, Stephen.
Of course! Perfect.
What's more, he's here, staying the night.
I'll go and find him.
Never.
Never, never! Even for me to mention such a topic to him would somehow lend it credence.
It has credence already! Have you not heard it said that a great deal of Her Majesty's dislike of your father stems from the gossip she has heard, no doubt inaccurate, about his activities? My father is the purest, simplest, most innocent Christian I know.
It was largely his example which persuaded me to take the cloth myself.
To think of discussing with him the kind of matters you have mentioned is practically beyond the bounds of my mind to contemplate.
I give you good night, gentlemen.
Then it's between you and me, Eddie.
- What? - To talk to him.
Heads or tails? I'm not sure that I agree.
Tails.
Heads.
Blast! Thank God for that.
- Good morning, sir.
- Good morning, good morning, good morning.
- We've been worried, sir.
- Oh? That you've been missing all night, sir.
Oh, I was perfectly all right, dear fellow.
Perfectly all right.
Excuse me, sir.
- Would you mind telling me exactly where - What? Nothing, sir.
Nothing in the world.
It's just as well that we keep in touch at all times, sir.
Mr Vincent, I've been looking after myself for the last seventy-odd years.
I think I can probably manage it for a little bit longer.
Still, you don't mind us trying to doour best, sir? Not at all, Mr Vincent.
Well, as my wife would say another day, another duck shoot.
Y - Yes, sir.
Quite so, sir, yes.
- Good morning.
- Good morning, sir.
Early birds, eh? O Lord, to Thee we dedicate this day, with whatever trials and demands it may bring forth.
And we ask of Thee the strength to deal with them in purity of heart and spirit and in the knowledge of thy ever-present love.
- Amen.
- Amen.
Well, now what gets us all out of our beds so early on this fine morning? Well, none of us has been to bed, sir.
How about There are telegrams from Cairo and Delhi, Prime Minister.
Arabia has attacked the Khedive and is busy fortifying Alexandria.
The Russians have started to infiltrate Afghanistan again.
I shall be holding a Cabinet in one hour.
Well, you were a tower of strength! You've no room to talk.
You'd retreated before we'd even sounded the bugle! It was no failure of courage on Rosebery's part.
I interrupted.
I could see the time was quite wrong.
I'll have him yet! I may be the cub around here but perhaps I have the snap to run the old fox to earth.
And is he an old fox? He might be just as staggeringly moral, righteous and pious as he seems.
It's for you, my lord.
Just delivered by an urchin.
- Thank you, Hampton.
- My lord.
What, anonymous? No Not this time.
I said Cabinet would be in one hour! I'm sorry, I I didn't realise.
Oh, never mind, never mind.
Wasn't doing any good anyway.
What is it Claudius says? "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
"Words without thoughts never to Heaven go.
" No, they don't, do they? What's that? Someone's got to talk to you and I've drawn the short straw.
Am I so terrible to talk to that a man has to lose a lottery to do it? You're endangering the Party.
What in the name of the Almighty are you talking about? I am the Party! I won the last election over the heads of Parties.
The skies were crimson with the glow of the people's torches, the air quivered with the thunder of their acclaim.
Those same people would tear you down in those same streets if if certain facts were to reach their ears.
What facts, pray? Well, for instance, the fact that if you slept at all last night it wasn't in your own bed.
You impudent indelicate, graceless young pup! I chose not to sleep at all, but why in Hades should I explain to you?! The fact that the rich and fashionable whore, Laura Bell, bandies your name about as familiarly as that of her spaniel! I tried to redeem her from her present mode of existence.
I've never denied it! And the fact that on the very night that London was buzzing with the news of the slaughter of your nephew Freddie Cavendish, instead of hurrying back to Downing Street you went off with a prostitute near the Duke of York steps.
Then, you came back here and fell on your knees to pray for Freddie's soul.
What? Who promulgated this calumny? A member of the public saw you.
This time, not an enemy.
The master of the Bermondsey workhouse.
A lifelong admirer of yours.
"For years, that statesman has been my idoI.
"So much for human frailty and credibility.
"I almost disbelieved my own eyes and knowledge.
" You know nothing! - The young lady was in mortal distress.
- Explain that to your worshippers.
Are you suggesting I should give up my charitable work? I'm suggesting sir that you give up your night walks.
Father, I dislike the idea, there is no need There is for me.
I used to think There was a time when I believed that the healthy soul ought to be able to discharge its burdens at the foot of the great throne without the assistance of an intermediate person.
But I no longer believe that.
We all need help.
But I have none of the proper symbols, vestments Impedimenta, merely.
The contact between lay mind and ordained mind is all that is needed.
People say that I have done great things with my life.
I have set nations free across Europe, I've set people free in this country.
I have doubled the number entitled to vote.
I have liberated them from penal taxes.
But one thing I have never been able to do that is to liberate myself.
Liberate, Father? There are There are lusts which can manacle a man more surely than irons.
You mean the lusts of the flesh? By which I have been pursued as by the Furies all my life.
You, Father? I have been cursed with an overabundance of that vitality which causes the fruits of the earth and the peoples upon it to increase and multiply.
Well, there can be no guilt in that.
Our blessed Lord himself said go forth and multiply.
You are talking of the normal, temperate man, who procreates his family to the greater glory of God.
And in that you have been an example to us all.
You have sired and brought up a family If I'd allowed myself to have my way, I would have sired a hundred families, a thousand families.
What? Have you heard of the practice of self-flagellation? - Yes.
- In my 2os, it was only by the use of that discipline that I was able to conduct myself as a Christian gentleman.
I scourged myself daily cruelly to exorcise the demon of uncleanliness that drove me.
This demon did it drive you towards others? Towards others and towards myself.
My desires were volcanic.
Was there any particular stimulus that prompted them? Sight.
Touch.
Scent.
Simply being in a woman's presence, mere thoughts, even.
And you took measures against such stimulae? I avolded what the Roman Catholics call "the occasions of sin".
As soon as anything - an atmosphere, the proximity of a woman, the content of a conversation - as soon as anything excited me, I simply made some sort of excuse and left.
I must have seemed very strange.
To some I must have seemed ill-mannered.
I also stopped frequenting certain bookshops.
- Bookshops? - I'd become a reader of pornography.
Oh, not the dross which is churned out by the basement print shops in the East End, no, I was a lover of Petronius, Boccaccio, the French fabliaux.
I stopped reading them.
I walked past any bookshops where I thought I might see them, I averted my eyes from suggestive paintings and gradually I weaned myself off it.
I lived a life as close to that of a monk in his cell as is possible for a man who is about in the world.
And the self-flagellation? I had finally to abandon the practice.
I came to realise that pleasure and pain were insidiously related and that it was possible for the latter to be the occasion of the former.
Pleasure and pain simultaneously, if you understand me, the pleasure always the stronger feeling, but the pain actually underlying it, the material from which the pleasure was woven.
I I even speculated when they burned martyrs in the Middle Ages, did the victim feel the pain of the fire or its pleasure? Ohh I got myself into some strange and turbulent waters but I navigated my way through them and I found the answer.
It was to direct those torrential feelings that I felt within me into my career and into my charitable works.
But I still do not know whether I deluded myself in the notion of doing good by mixing with those women or whether I sought through it that which was unlawful.
Those who praised my titanic energy, the ferocious speed with which I drafted bills, the hours spent on my feet in the Commons, pouring out words like some human Niagara, well what would they have thought, I wonder if they'd known the engine that powered it all? You make it sound like some deformity.
And this is the admirable and quite natural channelling of your forces for the public good.
Has there ever been one particular woman in whom you found in whom you were interested for a long time? I think I would not wish to answer that.
Have you ever done anything which you would regard as being unfaithful to your wife? Confession, my son, must be total.
And scouring.
I repeat the question.
Have you ever done anything I have not been guilty of the act which is known as that of infidelity to the marriage bed.
That is strangely phrased.
It is my answer.
Then you must provide your own absolution.
So be it.
Are you finished, then? You two great solemnical men? - Finished? - Oh, great gods above! You think I don't know that my old oak has been sickening for a shriving for months? There's not much we can hide from you, Mother.
No, there isn't.
I may not say very much You say a great deal.
It's just that half the household hasn't the faintest idea what you're talking about.
Oh, very well.
I'll speak plain, boring English like the rest of you.
Ah.
Off you go, my pixies.
Get ready for bed.
Your old nan will be up to see you presently.
Good night.
Thank you.
They've been tormenting Will about his work among the fallen women, haven't they? I think he's been tormenting himself.
- What did he tell you? - Mother! You've not much respect for the secrecy of the confessional.
Oh, stuff and nonsense.
Family chat, that's all it was.
Anyway, I know perfectly well without your telling me.
He told you he feels himself a monster.
Full of doubt and guilt and self-loathing.
I really can't discuss it.
I'll wager everything I have in the world there's one thing he didn't tell you.
Oh? I know perfectly well how these mean-minded people think about Will's work among the fallen women, that it's prompted by his own predilection.
That is an impression some have.
When your father was a young man of 19 at Oxford - getting his double first - he was a member of a certain private club composed of earnest young men.
And one night they took an oath.
Each of them swore that when he came into his fortune, he would devote one tenth of it per annum to some charitable cause.
And then they drew lots, to see which cause should be taken care of by whom.
And Will drew fallen women.
It was pure chance.
Might just as easily have been pit ponies.
Why has he never made this known? He declines to make excuses for the way he conducts his life.
Where was he the other night? That is something that we shall never know.
I shall certainly not ask him.
- Don't you wish to know? - No.
Because you're afraid to know? Because it's irrelevant to my life with your father.
I've lived with him now for over 40 years.
In my considered opinion he is the most Christian man I have ever met, tormented by a virility which he has controlled and subdued with an iron will.
Tempted? Yes.
Unlucky in the charitable cause which fell to his lot, yes.
Falling now and then in odd little ways, nothing of the least importance.
He's a great and good man, who has helped and guided thousands.
We love each other and we always shall.
Trust is what I can give him.
And I give it to him with all of my heart.
It's his anchor.
Now, if you'll excuse me - we're dining with the French ambassador.
- Certainly.
All right, James, I can manage.
Thank you very much.
Cath! Cath! They want me to give up my night walking.
Darling, do you want to? No, I do not.
But they say it's giving rise to misconceptions and scandals.
Do you believe them? They say they have my best interests at heart.
When people say that they're usually thinking of their own best interests.
Do you have any misconceptions? If I did, you'd very soon hear about them, you great bungey lump.
I dare say I would, too! Oh, now, now, now.
You're crushing your shirt.
To say nothing of what you're doing to my dress.
Oh! Get on with you, you great St Bernard! Or you'll still be struggling with that stud when we step through the French ambassador's door! All the same, I think perhaps I should give up my nocturnal walks.
Not if it goes against the grain.
Well, I could always find some other way of fulfilling my mission.
And the first man to do away with the collar stud will make a million pounds! Ah, thank you, Danny.
- My dear.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
- Good dinner, I trust, madam? - Yes.
- Sir? - Oh, passable, Hampton, passable.
I'm not much of a one for this fancy French cuisine.
Cath.
I'm damned if I'll let them cage me in.
Dearest Try not to be too late.