第61章 THE NINTH(1)

THE LAST DAYS OF SIR RICHMOND HARDY

Section 1

The Majority and Minority Reports of the Fuel Commission were received on their first publication with much heat and disputation, but there is already a fairly general agreement that they are great and significant documents, broadly conceived and historically important.They do lift the questions of fuel supply and distribution high above the level of parochial jealousies and above the petty and destructive profiteering of private owners and traders, to a view of a general human welfare.They form an important link in a series of private and public documents that are slowly opening out a prospect of new economic methods, methods conceived in the generous spirit of scientific work, that may yet arrest the drift of our western civilization towards financial and commercial squalor and the social collapse that must ensue inevitably on that.In view of the composition of the Committee, the Majority Report is in itself an amazing triumph of Sir Richmond's views; it is astonishing that he was able to drive his opponents so far and then leave them there securely advanced while he carried on the adherents he had altogether won, including, of course, the labour representatives, to the further altitudes of the Minority Report.

After the Summer recess the Majority Report was discussed and adopted.Sir Richmond had shown signs of flagging energy in June, but he had come back in September in a state of exceptional vigour; for a time he completely dominated the Committee by the passionate force of his convictions and the illuminating scorn he brought to bear on the various subterfuges and weakening amendments by which the meaner interests sought to save themselves in whole or in part from the common duty of sacrifice.But toward the end he fell ill.

He had worked to the pitch of exhaustion.He neglected a cold that settled on his chest.He began to cough persistently and betray an increasingly irritable temper.In the last fights in the Committee his face was bright with fever and he spoke in a voiceless whisper, often a vast angry whisper.His place at table was marked with scattered lozenges and scraps of paper torn to the minutest shreds.Such good manners as had hitherto mitigated his behaviour on the Committee departed from him, He carried his last points, gesticulating and coughing and wheezing rather than speaking.But he had so hammered his ideas into the Committee that they took the effect of what he was trying to say.

He died of pneumonia at his own house three days after the passing of the Majority Report.The Minority Report, his own especial creation, he never signed.It was completed by Wast and Carmichael....

After their parting at Salisbury station Dr.Martineau heard very little of Sir Richmond for a time except through the newspapers, which contained frequent allusions to the Committee.Someone told him that Sir Richmond had been staying at Ruan in Cornwall where Martin Leeds had a cottage, and someone else had met him at Bath on his way, he said, in his car from Cornwall to a conference with Sir Peter Davies in Glamorganshire.

But in the interim Dr.Martineau had the pleasure of meeting Lady Hardy at a luncheon party.He was seated next to her and he found her a very pleasing and sympathetic person indeed.

She talked to him freely and simply of her husband and of the journey the two men had taken together.Either she knew nothing of the circumstances of their parting or if she did she did not betray her knowledge."That holiday did him a world of good," she said."He came back to his work like a giant.I feel very grateful to you."Dr.Martineau said it was a pleasure to have helped Sir Richmond's work in any way.He believed in him thoroughly.

Sir Richmond was inspired by great modern creative ideas.

"Forgive me if I keep you talking about him," said Lady Hardy."I wish I could feel as sure that I had been of use to him."Dr.Martineau insisted."I know very well that you are.""I do what I can to help him carry his enormous burthen of toil" she said."I try to smooth his path.But he is a strange silent creature at times."Her eyes scrutinized the doctor's face.

It was not the doctor's business to supplement Sir Richmond's silences.Yet he wished to meet the requirements of this lady if he could."He is one of those men," he said, "who are driven by forces they do not fully understand.A man of genius.""Yes," she said in an undertone of intimacy.Genius....Agreat irresponsible genius....Difficult to help....Iwish I could do more for him."

A very sweet and charming lady.It was with great regret that the doctor found the time had come to turn to his left-hand neighbour.

Section 2

It was with some surprise that Dr.Martineau received a fresh appeal for aid from Sir Richmond.It was late in October and Sir Richmond was already seriously ill.But he was still going about his business as though he was perfectly well.He had not mistaken his man.Dr.Martineau received him as though there had never been a shadow of offence between them.

He came straight to the point."Martineau," he said, "I must have those drugs I asked you for when first I came to you now.I must be bolstered up.I can't last out unless I am.

I'm at the end of my energy.I come to you because you will understand.The Commission can't go on now for more than another three weeks.Whatever happens afterwards I must keep going until then."The doctor did understand.He made no vain objections.He did what he could to patch up his friend for his last struggles with the opposition in the Committee."Pro forma," he said, stethoscope in hand, "I must order you to bed.You won't go.

But I order you.You must know that what you are doing is risking your life.Your lungs are congested, the bronchial tubes already.That may spread at any time.If this open weather lasts you may go about and still pull through.But at any time this may pass into pneumonia.And there's not much in you just now to stand up against pneumonia....""I'll take all reasonable care."