It is so typical of Oxford
to start its new year in the autumn.
I feel positively 100 years old.
I've just been given a talking to
by Monsignor Bell this afternoon,
my tutor yesterday, and the Junior Dean,
and now I've got to face Mr. Samgrass of All Souls.
That will make the fourth in two days.
Who's Mr. Samgrass of All Souls?
Oh, just someone of Mummy's.
They all say that I made such a bad start last year
that I've been noticed, and if I do not mend my ways,
I shall have to be sent down.
Oh, Charles, what's happened to us since last term?
I feel so old.
I feel positively middle-aged, which is infinitely worse.
Well, I'm glad we had this little talk.
Your mother will be so pleased.
Would you care for a glass of sherry?
I think I shall indulge in one myself.
Thank you.
Did your mother tell you
that I am doing a little work for her?
You know, it was she who felt so keenly that we should meet.
She did tell you, didn't she?
Um... she may have done.
I really can't remember.
Well, I must go.
She has entrusted me
with the compilation of a memorial work
on her brother Ned.
I say work, but, of course, it gives me immense pleasure.
And what a delight to work at Brideshead,
quite my favorite house in England.
I'm glad you like it.
L...
I have an essay to write.
Yes, of course.
Well, remember what I've said.
I am sure we shall enjoy our exploration together,
and you know that any success in the fields of academe
would bring great pleasure to your mother.
Yes, thank you.
Good-bye.
Good-bye, Sebastian.
Mr. Samgrass and his little talks
were to play an increasingly large part in our lives.
Sebastian spoke less than the truth
when he described him as someone of Mummy's.
He was someone of almost everyone
who possessed something to attract him.
I'm supposed to mend my ways, Charles.
How does one mend one's ways, hmm?
Join the League of Nations Union?
Read lsis every week?
Drink coffee every morning at the Cadena café?
That would be a start.
You could smoke a great pipe and play hockey
and go to tea on Boar's Hill.
Yes, and I could go to lectures at Keble.
I could buy one of those little bicycles
with a tray of books on it.
I could drink cocoa every evening
and discuss sex seriously, very seriously.
Anthony Blanche has gone down.
- Has he? - Mm.
He wrote me a letter.
He said he's taken a flat in Munich
and started a relationship with a policeman.
I shall miss him.
Yes, I shall too... In a way.
Anthony Blanche had taken something away with him
when he went.
He had locked a door and hung the key on his chain.
All his friends, among whom he had always been a stranger,
needed him now.
Sebastian and I kept very much to our own company that term,
each so much bound up in the other
that we did not need to look elsewhere for friends.
My cousin Jasper had told me it was normal
to spend one's second year
shaking off the friends of one's first,
and it happened as he had said.
Most of my friends were those I had made through Sebastian,
and together we shed them and made no others.
I kept a tenuous connection with the History school,
wrote my two essays a week,
and attended the occasional lecture.
Thus, soberly dressed and happily employed,
I became a fairly respectable member of my college.
And that is how Lady Marchmain found us
when early in that Michaelmas term
she came for a week to Oxford.
Oh, Mr. Ryder.
A lady's been here asking for you, sir.
She left this message.
Thank you, Oakes.
I am so pleased to have found you, Charles.
I may call you Charles?
Of course.
I feel I know you so well from Sebastian.
I've just had luncheon with him and Mr. Samgrass.
Do you know who I mean? You may have met.
He's a very clever History don at All Souls.
He's been taking a great interest in Sebastian.
Yes, I heard.
I hope Sebastian will appreciate his interest.
I was so sorry to have missed you when you were at Brideshead.
Everyone loves your paintings in the Garden Room.
Well, it was very kind of you to let me stay so long.
I think it was Sebastian who was fortunate
to have you with him all that time.
Is it true, as Mr. Samgrass tells me,
that you are my son's only friend this term?
Well, some people have gone down.
I suppose perhaps I am.
We do spend a lot of time together.
I'm glad of it.
I'm sure I have reason to be grateful to you, Charles, too.
Friendships like yours can be such a help.
She accepted me as Sebastian's friend
and sought to make me hers also
and, in doing so, unwittingly struck at the roots
of our friendship.
That is the single reproach I have
to set against her abundant kindness to me.
One morning a week or two later,
Julia arrived in Oxford driven by a large man
who she introduce as Mr. Mottram and addressed as Rex.
They both joined a small lunch party in my rooms,
one of the last of the old kind that I gave.
How much was it?
Oh, just a few guineas.
So H.R.H. ended up having...
He can't have been more than 30 at the time we met him,
but Rex seemed very old to us in Oxford.
He'd arrived from Canada after the war,
had become a Member of Parliament,
a gambler, and a good fellow,
lucky with money.
You must remember, Mr. Ryder, he's a Colonial.
Aren't you, darling?
He's never been to any sort of university.
Lucky chap.
Well, it just means you start out life
three years behind the other fellow.
And Rex has never stayed anywhere for three years.
Have you, darling?
Mind you, I know quite a lot about the house from Effie.
He's told me some very rich stories, indeed.
I remember one about two undergraduates
and a goose.
Old story.
Rex knows everyone.
Any cigars, Charles?
Damn, my cigarettes.
Rex?
Don't worry. I'll get them.
They are in the car.
Excuse me, gentlemen.
Julia treated him as she seemed to treat all the world,
with mild disdain but with an air of possession.
Look, I'm helping to organize
a ghastly charity ball in London next month.
You two absolutely must come.
Rex is having a dinner party first.
I don't see why we should.
Oh, but you must.
The trouble with Rex is, he doesn't know anybody young.
His friends are all leathery old sharks in the city
and dreary MPs.
Well, we'll see.
Come on, Charles.
Sorry, Lunt's been playing games with my cufflinks.
Boy, you're not coming are you?
Yes, aren't I? Delighted, dear boy, delighted.
Well, that's a surprise.
I suppose I'll have to go in the back.
I suppose you realize this going to be
one the most stupefyingly boring balls of the season.
Well, I haven't been to too many balls this season,
so that's all right.
Remarkably on a good day.
- Oh, careful. - What?
Nearly lost the bubbly.
My God, Sebastian, you're not gonna drive like this
all the way to London, are you?
I shall be sick.
Sebastian and I were to spend the night at Marchmain House,
so we went there to dress
and, while we dressed, drank bottle of champagne.
But you're pulling.
You can't haul me around like that.
Ohl.
God, Julia, you're not even changed.
I know.
I'm going to be horribly late.
You'd better go on to Rex's without me.
You're very tedious.
It's heavenly of you to come.
We're all going to be hideously bored.
Mm.
Well, don't be too long.
Thank you.
Keep them happy.
Yes, sir.
I say, where on Earth is Julia?
How should I know?
Probably gone to have dinner somewhere else.
Gosh.
It's her dance.
But how will she get there without us?
She'll be all right.
Oh, Rex, that absurd Jeroboam.
Why must you have everything so big?
Won't be too big for us.
Now, listen, you chaps.
Let's chuck this ghastly dance and go to Ma Mayfield's.
Who's Ma Mayfield?
You know Ma Mayfield.
Everyone knows Ma Mayfield of the Old Hundredth,
the best club in town.
I've got a regular there, sweet little thing named Effie.
There'd be the devil to pay if she heard I'd been in London
and hadn't been to see her,
so come and meet Effie at Ma Mayfield's.
All right, let's go and see Effie at Ma Mayfield's.
Now, we need another bottle of pop off the good Mottram...
Cut the bloody ball and go straight to Ma Mayfield's.
Look who's there.
At last.
I'm sorry.
Brenda.
I'm so glad you didn't let him hold up dinner up for me.
It's his Canadian courtesy.
Well, thank God you're here.
At last, we can go.
This is all very well,
but are you sure you know where this place is?
Of course I do. 100 Sink Street.
It's just off Leicester Square.
We'll take the car.
Aren't we going to look in on the ball?
Oh, Charles.
If you've seen one ball, you've seen them all.
- But I want to dance. - All right, you can dance at-
- Ma Mayfield's. - Ma Mayfield's.
Not the same sort of dancing.
You better not drive.
I'll drive.
Know the way like the back of me hand.
Jump in.
Ready?
Yes.
How do you turn the bally lights off?
Ask Hardcastle.
Good evening.
Are you members?
You want to keep out of there.
You'll be poisoned and given a dose.
You members?
Um...
The name is Mulcaster.
Viscount Mulcaster.
Now, look here, my man.
I'm an old friend of the proprietress.
All right, try inside.
You'll be robbed and poisoned and infected and robbed.
You're not members here, are you, dearie?
I say, that really is the limit.
I'm extremely well-known here.
You ought to know me by now.
Yes, dearie.
10 bob each.
Absolutely ridiculous.
I've never had to pay to get in here before.
You're lucky, dearie.
We're full up.
Anyone who comes in after you is going to have to pay a quid.
Now, look, I insist.
Let me speak to Mrs. Mayfield at once.
You're speaking, dearie.
I am Mrs. Mayfield.
Well, Ma.
I really-it's so dark in here.
I didn't recognize you in your finery.
You know me, don't you?
Boy Mulcaster.
That's all right, duckie.
Just give us your ten bob... each.
It's all right, chaps.
Is Effie here this evening?
Who's Effie?
Effie, you know, one of the girls who's always here,
pretty, dark one.
Well, we've got lots of girls working here,
some dark, some fair, some you might call pretty.
I haven't got the time to notice.
30 bob.
I say, that's a bit steep.
I'm gonna go and try and find Effie.
Cigarette?
Thanks, old man.
Come on. We're wasting our time.
They're only fairies.
Look, you fellows, I've found her.
This is Effie.
Lord Sebastian Flyte, Charles Ryder, Effie.
- Can you give some toast? - Yes.
That's another 6 bob.
This is the first bite I've had all evening, you know.
The only decent thing about this place is the breakfast.
You get fair peckish hanging about.
I seen you here before often, haven't I?
I'm afraid not.
Oh, then it must be you I've seen before.
I should rather hope so.
You haven't forgotten our little evening in September, have you?
No, darling.
Oh, you was the boy in the Guards
who cut his toe, wasn't you?
Now, don't tease, Effie.
Oh, Lord.
Oh, I know.
You came with Bunty that night we were raided
and we all hid behind the dustbins.
Effie loves pulling my leg.
Yes, well, she's cross with me
for having stayed away for so long,
aren't you, Effie?
I know I seen you somewhere before.
Effie, stop teasing, please.
I wasn't meaning to, honest.
Do you want to dance?
Not just at the moment.
Thank God for that.
My shoes are pinching me something terrible tonight.
For the lady, sir.
Thank you very much.
That's 30 bob.
Thank you, sir.
Cheers.
Oh, cheers.
We're under attack.
Oh, Lord,
Death's Head and the Sickly Child.
Mm-hmm.
Tell them to go away.
Ladies...
Dear ladies,
would you care to dance with my friend and I?
Well, if you really want to,
we don't mind, do we?
We thought you was fairies at first, didn't we?
Yeah, when you came in, we both said,
"Those two are fairies," didn't we, Renee?
Well, that's what we said.
Well, that's what you looked like.
That was because of our extreme youth.
And our extraordinary physical beauty.
I think you're very sweet, really.
Well, I think you're very sweet too.
Hey, how about a little party,
just the six of us over at my place?
Certainly.
Boy, we're off to a party.
Oh.
Just the six of us.
This very charming young lady says she's got somewhere to go.
Oh, I must go and tell Mrs. Mayfield we're going out.
Come on, Effie.
It was still early, not long after midnight,
when we regained the street.
The commissionaire tried to persuade us to take a taxi,
but we piled into Hardcastle's car,
and there lay our mistake.
Here. Stop.
Let me out.
I'm sorry if I'm impeding the traffic, officer,
but the young lady insisted upon my stopping
so that she could get out.
She would take no denial.
As you will have observed, she was pressed for time,
a matter of nerves.
Here, et me talk to him.
Be a sport, handsome.
No one's seen anything but you.
The boys don't mean no harm.
I'll get them into a taxi and see them home all right.
Now, look here, my good man,
there's no need for you to notice anything.
We've all been to Ma Mayfield's.
I reckon Ma Mayfield pays you a pretty good retainer
to keep your eyes shut.
Well, you can keep them shut on us as well,
and you won't be the loser by it.
My God, you'll pay for this.
Do you know who I am?
I am the Viscount Mulcaster.
My father is the ninth Earl.
For God's sake, pipe down in there.
Open this door.
I insist upon seeing a doctor.
Telephone the home secretary.
Send for my solicitor.
Charles, are you there?
Yes, I'm here.
This is a hell of a business.
I tell you, the person to send for
would be Rex Mottram.
He'd be in his element here.
Well, you understand, sir.
We had to do our duty.
Of course, Sergeant.
This is an outrage.
I demand my legal rights.
It was for their protection, sir.
I'm sure you did the right thing, Sergeant.
And we decided to let the young ladies go, sir.
Cigar?
Oh, thank you very much, sir.
Sergeant, do you think we could keep this incident
between ourselves?
No, sir.
I'm afraid it's too late for that.
The report's already gone upstairs,
and we've taken the young ladies' names as witnesses.
I see.
Mottram, I intend to sue for wrongful arrest.
Tell him.
Be a good fellow, Mulcaster.
Leave all the talking to me.
Is there anything else, Sergeant?
Yes, sir.
If you'd like to complete the formalities,
sign for the sureties.
If you gentlemen would like to sign for your possessions.
There, sir, please.
Thank you, Sergeant.
Thank you, Sergeant. Good night.
All right, just under there, sir, please.
It'd better be all there.
We had all slept that night at Rex's flat.
Thank you.
In the morning, the display was impressive.
He summoned a man from Thrompos to shave us,
while his valet collected our clothes from Marchmain House.
Rex joined us after breakfast.
Good morning, gentlemen.
I trust you're feeling a little better.
This is Mr. Selwyn, who will be representing you.
Lord Sebastian Flyte.
How do you do?
Morning.
Mr. Charles Ryder.
- How do you do? - How do you do?
Lord Mulcaster.
- How do you do? - Hello.
Please sit down, Selwyn.
Thank you.
Sebastian's in a jam.
He's liable for anything up to six month's imprisonment
for being drunk in charge of a car.
Unfortunately, you'll come up before Grigg.
He takes a grim view of cases of this sort.
Now, all that will happen this morning
is that we shall ask to have Sebastian's case
held over for a week to prepare his defense.
But you two will plead guilty,
say you're sorry, and pay your 5 bob fine.
I'll see what can be done
about squaring things with the evening papers,
though the Star could be difficult.
Now, this is important.
Remember to keep out all mention of the Old Hundredth.
Now, luckily, the tarts were sober,
so they've not being charged, but they've taken their names.
Now, if we try and break down the police evidence,
they'll be called and used as witnesses.
We must avoid that at all costs, right, Mulcaster?
Mm.
Good.
We have to swallow the police story whole
and appeal to the magistrate's better nature
not to wreck a young man's career
for the sake of a single boyish indiscretion.
It'll all work out all right.
Now, we shall need a don to give evidence of good character.
Julia tells me you have a tame one called Samgrass.
He'll do.
Meanwhile, your story is simply that you came up from Oxford
for a perfectly respectable dance,
were not used to wine, had too much,
and then lost the way driving home.
Well, let's take care of this, and then see about fixing things
with your authorities up in Oxford.
Everything happened at court as Rex had predicted.
At 10:30 that morning,
we stood outside Bow Street Magistrates' Court.
Mulcaster and I had paid our fines and were free men.
Sebastian was bound over to appear in a week's time.
5 bob is monstrous.
They should have cleared us.
They put themselves totally in the wrong
when they refused to call my solicitor.
I don't see why they should get away with it.
Mulcaster, it's all over now.
Anyway, I'm off to the city.
My great-uncle's just snuffed it.
Taxi.
I suppose Mummy's got to hear about it.
Damn, damn, damn.
It's cold.
Why don't we just go back to Oxford
and wait for them to bother us?
Why don't we telephone Julia?
I think I'll go abroad.
My dear Sebastian, look.
All you're going to be is fined a couple of quid
then given a stiff talking-to.
Yes, but it's all the bother,
Mummy and Bridey and the family and the dons.
I think I'd rather go to prison.
I mean, if I just slip away abroad,
then they can't do anything about it, can they?
Can they?
Yes, they can.
Well, that's what people do when they're being chased
by the police.
I know Mummy's going to make it seem
as if she has to bear the whole brunt of the business.
Look, why don't we call Julia,
arrange to meet, and talk it over with her, hmm?
Well, you are a pair of pickles.
Good morning, Julia.
I must say, you look remarkably well on it.
The only time I got tight,
I was paralyzed all the next day.
I do think you might have taken me with you.
The ball was positively lethal,
and I've always longed to go to the Old Hundredth.
No one will ever take me.
Is it heaven?
You know about that too?
Rex telephoned me this morning and told me everything.
What were your girlfriends like?
Now, don't be prurient.
Well, mine was like a skull.
Mine was like a consumptive.
Goodness.
Does Mummy know?
Not about your skulls and consumptives.
She knows you were in the clink.
I told her.
She was divine about it, of course.
It's Mummy's being divine about everything
that worries me the most.
I can't think why you went and stayed with Mr. Mottram.
You might have come and told me about it first.
Well there wasn't really very much chance, Mama.
I am sorry if-
- How am I going to explain this to the family?
They will be so surprised to find that they
are more shocked about it than I am.
Do you know my sister-in-law, Fanny Roscommon?
She's always thought I brought my children up badly.
Now I'm beginning to think she must be right.
Mr. Samgrass.
Do you think it any use my speaking to the chancellor?
Well, Lady Marchmain,
I've already spoken to Monsignor Bell
and persuaded him to call on the dean.
She's being perfectly charming.
I don't see what you're so worried about.
I can't explain.
Mr. Samgrass, how long have you known Lord Sebastian Flyte?
Since he first came up to Oxford.
I am an old friend of the defendant's mother,
Lady Marchmain.
What impression have you formed of his character?
I would describe him to you, sir, as a model student.
My deep regret is that a brilliant university career
may now be at stake.
Is this type of incident in his character at all,
would you say?
I would say it was entirely out of character.
To my certain knowledge,
Lord Sebastian has always conducted his life at the House
with the most studious application.
The evidence is that the defendant came up to London
to attend a charitable function organized by his sister.
That is correct, sir.
It was a highly respectable affair.
I believe the explanation to be, Lord Sebastian, sir,
is simply unused to wine.
The law of England is the same for an Oxford undergraduate
as it is for any young hooligan.
Indeed, the better the home, the more outrageous the offense.
It is purely by good chance
that you do not bear the responsibility
for a serious accident.
But for Mr. Samgrass's evidence,
I would feel disposed to give you
an exemplary prison sentence.
However, I have accepted
that you are unused to wine.
There will be a fine of 10 pounds.
The usher will show you where to pay.
We were both gated for the rest of the term,
but the most lasting penalty we suffered was our intimacy
with Rex Mottram and Mr. Samgrass.
But since Rex's life was in London
in a world of politics and high finance
and Mr. Samgrass's nearer to our own at Oxford,
it was from him we suffered more.
For the rest of that term, he haunted us.
11 minutes, 15 seconds.
A marked improvement.
If they want to treat us like criminals,
we can behave like criminals.
Good evening, Sebastian.
Ah, Charles.
I don't think we've been spotted.
How delightful.
Did I tell you I've been invited to Brideshead for Christmas?
Your mother wrote me the most charming letter.
Charles, how good to see you.
You find me in solitary possession.
How are you?
Very well.
I gather Sebastian's out hunting.
Yes, we've had a lawn meet of the Marchmain hounds,
a deliciously archaic spectacle.
All our young friends are in pursuit of the fox.
I've been spending a cozy afternoon by the fire.
Sebastian, you will not be surprised to hear,
looked remarkably elegant in his pink coat.
Would you like some tea?
Mm.
Your arrival emboldens me to ring for some.
Is Lady Marchmain in?
No, she's driven off with her cousins to visit a neighbor.
She'll be back in time for dinner.
How can I prepare you for the party?
Alas, it breaks up tomorrow.
Lady Julia departs to celebrate the New Year elsewhere
and takes the beau monde with her.
I shall miss the pretty creatures about the house,
particularly one Celia.
She is the sister
of our old companion in adversity Boy Mulcaster
and wonderfully unlike him.
I find her most engaging.
I shall miss her, for I do not go tomorrow.
How long are you staying?
Oh, well into the year.
And you, Charles?
I don't know.
Tomorrow I start in earnest on our hostess's book.
Thank you.
Which, believe me,
is a treasure house of period gems.
Ah, the intrepid hunter returns.
Hello.
When did you get here?
About an hour ago.
Had a good day?
Where are the others, Sebastian?
I got fed up, so I hacked back.
I'm going up to change.
Come up and talk to me, Charles, will you?
Well, no doubt see you later, Mr. Samgrass.
We went to chapel three times on Christmas Day.
Mummy found some eunuchs to sing High Mass.
It sounded very peculiar.
Well, we had the village choir bawling at us
from the minstrels' gallery,
and Cousin Jasper dragooned us
into playing endless games of bridge.
Will I know anybody who's here?
No, I shouldn't think so.
They're all people of Mummy's and Julia's.
They'll all be there at tea.
Hello, Sebastian.
See what I mean?
Absolute zoo.
Charles, you've arrived.
Hello.
Hello, Cordelia.
Did you have a good Christmas?
Mm, quiet.
I'm going to ask Mummy if I can stay up
especially late tonight in honor of your arrival.
Oh, that'll be fun.
Sebastian, what happened to you?
Oh, I got bored.
Well, you missed the best part again.
We had the most tremendous gallop across Spring Fields,
six jumps to Platts Wood,
and I only just managed to stay on.
Hmm, well, we all know how brave you are.
Well I'm braver than you, and I've only got Mr. Beelzebub.
Quite a good day's sport.
Oh, Sebastian, good to see you.
Hello.
I think the hounds were on better form
after we dragged Thaxton Wood.
They pressed very hard.
Probably why we made the kill.
Ah, Ryder, how are you?
Hello, Bridey. Very well, thanks.
When did you get here?
Oh, Sebastian,
what happened to you after you left the home woods?
I came back early.
I looked all over the place for you.
No, thank you.
Ah, Charles.
Excuse me.
Our hostess has just returned.
She was asking if you had arrived yet.
You'll find her in her sitting room.
Ah, thank you.
I'm just going along to say hello to you mother.
Why?
You'll see her this evening.
Well, you know.
I'll see you later.
I'm delighted Charles has joined the party.
It augurs well, I feel,
this reunion of ours in your mother's house.
I look forward to our time together.
Did you enjoy your Christmas?
Yes.
Yes. I did. Thank you.
I hope you've both managed to settle down
after the incident...
back at Oxford, I mean.
I gather your penance hasn't been too harsh.
We were gated, but...
I expect you realize we have Mr. Samgrass to thank for that.
I mean, that the pair of you
weren't more severely dealt with.
He's worked extraordinarily hard, you know,
on our behalf.
He saw the proctor, the vice-chancellor.
He got Monsignor Bell to call on the dean.
Yes, I know.
Well, that's all over now, isn't it?
I must make a short visit to the chapel before dinner.
I don't suppose I can persuade you to come.
We must make a Catholic of you, Charles.
Religion predominated in the house,
not only in its practices, the daily mass
and Rosary morning and evening in the chapel,
but in all its intercourse.
Who's coming to chapel for the Rosary?
Well, I think I'd better look after Charles.
I must have my bath at once, Mummy.
I'm filthy.
I'll come. I can change later.
May I come too, Lady Marchmain,
if you don't mind?
Of course not. Father?
Certainly, Lady Marchmain.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
now, and at the hour of our death, amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, Our Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
now, and at the hour of our death, amen.
What did Mummy say?
Oh, she spent most of the time singing Samgrass's praises
and reminding me of our obligation to him,
how he saw the vice-chancellor.
And the proctor.
Yes, I had all that too.
I do wish Samgrass would go.
I'm so sick of being grateful to him.
Yes.
Thank God at least Julia's lot are going tomorrow.
Good-bye, Charles.
Happy New Year.
Oh, Julia, darling, I've forgotten your present.
Oh, it's all right.
Good-bye, Tom.
Good-bye - Good-bye, Margot.
Good-bye, Bobby. See you later.
I'll see you all at Polly's.
If we don't get there by midnight, happy New Year.
Come along, Tom.
Come on, Charles.
For a fortnight,
we remained at Brideshead leading our own life.
I had no mind then for anything except Sebastian,
and I saw him already as being threatened,
though I did not yet know how black was the threat.
His constant despairing prayer was to be let alone,
and since he counted among the intruders
his own conscience
and all claims of human affection,
his days in Arcadia were numbered.
He did not fail in love,
but he lost the joy of it,
for I was no longer part of his solitude.
As my intimacy with the family grew,
I became part of the world he sought to escape.
I became one of the bonds which held him.
That was the part for which his mother, in our little talks,
was seeking to fit me.
You have so many beautiful things.
You know, Charles, when I was a girl,
we were comparatively poor
but still much richer than most of the world,
and when I married, I became very rich.
It used to worry me.
I thought it wrong to have so many beautiful things
when others have nothing.
Now I realize it's possible for the rich to sin
by coveting the privileges of the poor.
Can you see that?
Perhaps.
The poor have always been the favorites
of God and His saints, but I believe
it's one of the special achievements of grace
to sanctify the whole of life, riches included.
Wealth in pagan Rome was necessarily something cruel.
It's not anymore.
But I thought it was supposed to be easier
for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
It's very unexpected for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle.
But then the Gospel is simply
a catalogue of unexpected things.
It's not to be expected that an ox and an ass
should worship at the crib.
Animals are always doing the oddest things
in the lives of the saints.
It's all part of the poetry, the...
The Alice in Wonderland side of religion.
Ready.
Pull.
Ready.
Pull.
Hello.
Where have you been all morning?
With your mother.
Oh, God.
Another of her little talks?
Well, I can't help it if she thinks I'm ripe for conversion.
Ready.
Pull.
You shouldn't encourage her.
She can be very determined.
And I can be very stubborn.
You needn't worry about me.
Ready.
Pull.
Oh, God, look at him.
Charles, I don't think I can take another day of this.
Why don't we go away somewhere?
Where?
I don't know.
Paris, Buenos Aires,
New York, Bayswater?
I think I'd settle for Bayswater.
Do you think your father will have us?
I don't think he'd even notice us.
- After tea, then? - After tea.
Come on, Sammy.
Ready.
Pull.
Ah, Charles.
I've just been telling Sebastian
I've made the most interesting discovery.
Really?
Pull?
Oh, sorry.
That Hilary term at Oxford,
we took up again the life that seemed to be shrinking
in the cool air.
The sadness that had been strong in Sebastian the term before
gave place to a kind of sullenness, even towards me.
He was sick at heart somewhere.
I did not know how,
and I grieved for him, unable to help.
When he was happy now,
it was usually because he was drunk,
and when drunk, he developed an obsession
for mocking Mr. Samgrass.
♪ Samgrass ♪
♪ Green ♪
♪ Arse ♪
♪ Samgrass ♪
♪ Green arse ♪
All this Mr. Samgrass took in good part,
as though each outrage in some way strengthened
his hold on Sebastian.
It was during this term that I began to realize
that Sebastian was a drunkard
in quite a different sense to myself.
Sebastian, it's me.
Are you there?
Sebastian, are you all right?
What's the matter?
Can I help?
I got drunk often
but through an excess of high spirits
and the love of the moment
and the wish to prolong and enhance it.
Sebastian drank to escape.
Nothing's the matter.
As we together grew older and more serious,
I drank less, he more.
Then a succession of disasters came upon him so swiftly...
There's nothing to be done.
And with such unexpected violence
that it is hard to say when exactly I realized
my friend was in deep trouble,
but I knew it well enough
in the Easter vacation at Brideshead.
Charles, go away.
There's a good fellow.