The Secret of Goresthorpe Grange
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
International Short Stories edited by William Patten
The Secret of Goresthorpe Grange by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)
Published: P F Collier and Son, New York 1910
The Project Gutenberg eBook Release Date: June 16, 2010 [eBook #32846].
Opening
I am sure that Nature never intended me to be a self-made man. There are times when I can hardly bring myself to realize that twenty years of my life were spent behind the counter of a grocer’s shop in the East End of London, and that it was through such an avenue that I reached a wealthy independence and the possession of Goresthorpe Grange.
My habits are conservative, and my tastes refined and aristocratic. I have a soul which spurns the vulgar herd.
Our family, the D’Odds, date back to a prehistoric era, as is to be inferred from the fact that their advent into British history is not commented on by any trustworthy historian.
Some instinct tells me that the blood of a Crusader runs in my veins.
Even now, after the lapse of so many years, such exclamations as “By’r Lady!” rise naturally to my lips, and I feel that, should circumstances require it, I am capable of rising in my stirrups and dealing an infidel a blow—say with a mace—which would considerably astonish him.
Goresthorpe Grange is a feudal mansion—or so it was termed in the advertisement which originally brought it under my notice.
Its right to this adjective had a most remarkable effect upon its price, and the advantages gained may possibly be more sentimental than real…
Characters
Jack Brocket – Charles Barlow
Mr.T.E.Stube, MD – Terry Offiler
Mrs.D’Odd – Liz Heaney
First Ghost – Michael Burman
Second Ghost – Roe Richardson
Third Ghost – Terry Offiler
Seventh Ghost – Anne Hope