Belle Moral: A Natural History by Ann-marie MacDonald Read Free Book Online Page A

time. His own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, believed in the mutability of species. But his reasoning was flawed: he put a piece of vermicelli in a jar and waited to see if it would come to life. No one could take him seriously after that.
[chuckle]
Vermicelli. Dr Reid might have feared the same fate when he put his jar aside forever.
[About to place the jar back on the desk, a thought occurs to her.]
Puppy … have you ever seen an ape with the ear of a wolf? Nor have I …
Scene 8 The Drawing Room
    The next morning
. M R A BBOTT
is waiting. He is fastidiously groomed, wears a pince nez, and carries a leather briefcase
. D R R EID
enters
.
    D R R EID . Ah, Mr Abbott, a word sir –
    A BBOTT . Good morning, Doctor –
    R EID . It appears you failed to receive the note I sent you, last –
    A BBOTT . I received it.
    D R R EID . Why, then, your reply must have gone astray.
    A BBOTT . No, my reply is forthcoming, to wit: it is more than a little irregular to seek to embargo a will before the contents are known.
    D R R EID . But you know the contents –
    A BBOTT . I do not, Doctor. My late father drew up Judge MacIsaac’s will –
    D R R EID . Forgive me, I ought to have –
    A BBOTT . Not at all.
    D R R EID. A stroke, was it?
    A BBOTT . Thrombosis.
    D R R EID. He didn’t linger.
    A BBOTT . Nay.
    D R R EID
[sympathetic aspirated, “ay”]
.
    A BBOTT
[corroborating aspiration]
.
    D R R EID. The fact remains, my dear Abbott, that the contents of Ramsay MacIsaac’s will are as good as known to all who knew him. The judge was a stubborn traditionalist, which is why this matter is of no little urgency; I have reason to fear that Victor MacIsaac is of unsound mind.
    A BBOTT : The law is very clear in that case, Doctor. According to the Act Respecting Lunatics,
[intoning]
“the committee [pron. comeetay] of the estate, shall within six months, file in the office of the Master to whom the matter is referred, or for such officer as may be –”
    D R R EID. Yes, quite, if young Mr MacIsaac is found to be mentally unfit, his estate will be administered by duly appointed guardians, but Abbott, if we proceed with the reading of the will this morning before that finding can be made, we risk tipping him into an acutely disturbed state from which he might not recover.
    A BBOTT . You wish me to suppress the late Judge MacIsaac’s will?
    D R R EID. Certainly not. I ask only that you delay the reading long enough for the course of Victor’s illness to become apparent. If his sanity does deteriorate, he can be delivered calmly into care before ever tasting the bitter fruit of inheritance. Your father would do no less, were he here.
    A BBOTT . I am not my father, Doctor.
    D R R EID. Son, this family has suffered enough. Commit one humane sin of ommission and spare the lad a world of pain: misplace the will for a few weeks.
    A BBOTT . What you suggest is not merely impossible, it’s implausible; no one for a moment would believe me capable of misplacing anything.
    A beat
.
    D R R EID . Certain … chattels await the heir to Belle Moral that might prove too much for the lad.
    A BBOTT . What “chattels”?
    D R R EID .
[silent]
.
    A BBOTT . One hears things.
    D R R EID. What things?
    A BBOTT . Rumours. To do with the late Mrs MacIsaac. They do not bear repeating.
    D R R EID . Then a gentleman need not so much as allude to them, sir.
    A BBOTT . A gentleman would not have me compromise my professional integrity, sir.
    D R R EID . I am a doctor. I too have integrity to uphold, indeed an oath: “First, do no harm.” I beg of you, heed it.
    F LORA
and
P EARL
enter
.
    P EARL . Mr Abbott, good morning to you, sir.
    A BBOTT [bowing]. Miss MacIsaac. [and
to
F LORA] Miss MacIsaac.
    F LORA . Will you take a drop of coffee, Mr Abbott?
[Yanking the cord, hollering.]
Young Farleigh! Refreshments in the drawing room!
    A BBOTT [to P EARL] . Miss MacIsaac, may I venture to express how immensely diverting I found to be your lecture on “Cambrian