Secret Beyond the Door... Page #4

It was a gamble and I lost. Period.

I'm going back to New York.

Back to what? To the empty life I lived before...

...before Mark?

If only Rick were alive -

I could go home to Rick,

but what would he say?

There's only one question, he'd say:

'Do you love him or don't you

and can that stuff about your

pride, how your feelings are hurt?

Do you want a man -

or a husband off the assembly line,

with freewheeling and fingertip control? '

Those were big words you said in front

of that altar:
Love, honor,

for better, for worse -

including the times when he's worried and moody

- after all, you're no easy dish yourself.

Andy, would you mind

driving back to the station?

I'd like you to pick up my trunks.

How do you do?

I'm David.

How do you do, David?

I'm glad you're feeling better.

- Thank you.

Am I disturbing you?

Thanks. I'm happy to have

this chance to meet you alone, David.

Miss Robey has told me

lots of nice things about you.

I like Miss Robey.

Aunt Caroline wouldn't agree with you.

What are you interested in, David?

- In what way?

In becoming? An architect too, I suppose?

No.

What are you reading?

I appreciate that you're

trying to make friends with me.

Yes, I am.

But there are things

I'm afraid you won't understand.

I'll never try to

take your mother's place, David.

You couldn't.

Let's leave it this way. Apparently,

you're honest. It's not usual in this house.

I was prepared to dislike you.

But I find I have nothing against you.

I shall call you Mrs Lamphere.

- Fair enough. I hope that later...

It's father.

- Excuse me, will you, David?

Do you want me to carry you

over the threshold?

You're not angry?

- I buttered my bread; now I have to lie in it.

I choose the weapons and

the battleground. Come upstairs.

Was there a cyclone?

- I'd call it an earthquake!

The ground's been shaking

under my feet ever since I got here.

Lamphere skeletons come

rattling out of every closet.

Mark, why didn't you tell me

you'd been married?

Darling, I thought... that you must have seen it

when we went to get the marriage license.

I remember thinking how

tactful you were not to mention it.

Rick always told me to read everything,

including the fine print.

But you never even mentioned David, or...

It all seemed so far away,

so unrelated to you.

Mark, right after you left me at the station

I wanted to go straight back to New York.

Then I had a talk with Rick.

I conjured him up and

he read me the riot act.

Finally he asked me one straight

question - the answer was 'yes'.

'Yes' what?

- 'Yes' I love you.

But I can't help wondering

if you love me.

You're... talking about Eleanor.

Celia, she was a gentle person: Not cold but...

I couldn't give her love. I blame myself,

but it just wasn't a marriage.

But you had a son.

I was never close to him, either.

He blamed me for her unhappiness.

Was she very unhappy?

I don't understand the things she cared for

and I couldn't make her understand

the things that were important to me.

Let's not make the same mistake.

I can understand...

...if you don't shut me out.

What about this morning?

I'm always that way when I'm worried.

I know it's no excuse, but I couldn't get the

magazine out of my mind.

What happened at the bank?

I went in but I couldn't ask for a loan.

The Lampheres have been

looked up to for so many years

I can't let the town know that

we need money.

I have to sell, that's all.

Now listen, darling, and please don't interrupt.

When I mentioned this before, you were

awfully stuffy and old hat about it.

I'm not rich, but I have money.

- No, Celia, please.

Mark, I'm your wife. That means I'm more

than the babe you whistled at.

I... whistled?

- You whistled with your eyes.

I'm that, but I want to be everything else, too.

I want to share your life.

No, Celia, please - I'd feel ashamed;

let's not discuss it.

Oh, Mark, you're just like a turtle. One wrong word

and boom! I'm talking to a shell that thick.

Family characteristic: Comes down from old

snapper Lamphere, known as 'the swamp king'.

Now, may I go and change my shell for dinner?

- One more thing.

I want to collect on that rain-check

you gave me in Mexico.

I can see that this is the day that

all my sins have found me out.

We had passed our first test.

A week later we had our housewarming.

It was a perfect party.

Everyone talked and nobody listened and

everybody took offense at everything.

Then nature joined the conversation

and suddenly there was unanimous agreement!

Bless the rain! When it started I was in the

clutches of one of your local hayseeds.

Look.

Cuddlesome, isn't he?

There's literally nothing I don't

know by now about lamb chops.

On the hook.

- I like mine medium rare.

Oh, Bob! Doesn't Mark have

the decency to be jealous.

Did you just get here?

- No. I saw you on the lawn.

As usual you were going

yackety, yackety, yack.

Oh, it's a wonderful party. I got rid

of gallons of repressed poisons.

Paging Mr Freud.

- Oh, darling, my subconscious is a booby trap!

Behave, you two.

Is she happy?

- Punch drunk.

He hasn't a button. Not a blessed suit,

except for what his magazine brings in.

All this is mortgaged to the hilt.

I watched you every minute.

- I, too.

I've missed you.

- You'd better.

How much longer... oh.

I've been trying all afternoon to catch you two

alone. Mind if I intrude on your pink cloud?

Come aboard. I appreciate your coming.

To be honest, Celia's letter from

Mexico didn't make me jump for joy.

- Well, I hope not.

I'm afraid I can't promise to make

her as happy as I am, but I'm...

Oh, stop now - you two make me

feel like a beetle on a pin!

Mark! There are just too many

people in the library.

I thought you might show

some of them your rooms.

I don't know, Carrie - I haven't

seen them myself since I came back.

Celia, I told you about them in Mexico.

- Yes, Mark, I'd love to see them.

You have to, Mark, to split them up.

I'll suggest games to the others.

Very well, Carrie.

Let's go and see how many

customers we have.

Rooms?

- Mark has a hobby. He collects rooms

like some people collect butterflies. They're

somehow connected with happy events.

He has a theory...

...that under certain conditions a room can

influence, or even determine, the actions

of the people living in it.

Now, the first room that you're about to see is the

salon of the comtesse de Bleumanoir.

It was sealed by her husband

on the morning of August 25th, 1572.

I first heard of it in Paris nine years ago.

It started my collection.

It must have cost considerable

to copy a room like this?

- It isn't a copy.

These are the original rooms down to

their last detail, as much as possible.

I bet there's a love story.

- Not exactly.

- What happened?

Murder, my dear.

It was the eve of St Bartholomew's Day.

The Guise family, to which the count belonged,

had planned, you will recall,

to murder all the Huguenots in Paris.

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