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Even then, she wasn’t left in peace His grandfather let the curst doctors hack into her poor, dead brain to satisfy their grisly curiosity The brain tissue eak, and they’d found evidence of blood seepage A vessel had burst during the last fit—one of ile they were Her earlier decline, the doctors decided, n of an inner deterioration that had begun long before The headaches were further sye

There was nothing anyone could have done for her, they clai such defects early on, it had no way of curing them

And so Borson and his associates absolved theh they had nothell

And the Camoys saw to it that no blame or shame would be attached to the family, either

She had “sunk into a fatal decline”—that was the story they gave out, because no Cae, could possibly be mad No hint of insanity had ever appeared in the family in all the centuries since Henri de Camois had come over from Normandy with the Conqueror

Even a theh giving the truth the cut direct could o away, like an unsuitable acquaintance

That was just as well, as far as Dorian was concerned If he had to listen to the heartless hypocrites pontificating about his e—and be destroyed, as she had been

After the funeral, he returned to Oxford and buried his feelings, as usual, in study It was the one thing he could do, the one thing his grandfather could not crush or twist to suit his tyrannical purposes

Consequently, at the end of the terree but did what no Camoys had ever done before: he won a first, In Literis Humanioribus

The traditional celebration followed at Rawnsley Hall It was the usual hypocrisy Dorian had never truly been one of the Camoys and he knew his academic triuive the appearance of fa was easier this time, with freedom so near In a feeeks, he would be upon the Continent—and he would not return to England until his grandfather was sealed in the tomb with his saintly ancestors

In the meantime, Dorian could play his role, as he’d done for years, and bear their pretense and hypocrisy

Pretending, always pretending, his mother had said

Her mind had broken down under the strain, she’d believed

Too many secretstoo weak to keep them in

He didn’t know that hers were not the only secrets she’d let out

He did not find out until twenty-four hours after the so-called celebration And then Dorian could only stand and listen helplessly for an endless, nu speech that shattered and scattered his plans like sobut his pride to sustain him

DORIAN WAS TURNED out of Rawnsley Hall with six pounds and some odd pence in his pocket This was because Lord Rawnsley had expected hiiveness—and Dorian had decided that the earl could wait until Judgment Day

His grandfather had called hier, a slave to the basest of appetites, who shamelessly and recklessly pursued a path that could only lead to madness and a hideous death from the foul diseases contracted from the filth hich he consorted

Though Dorian knew this was true, he found he must be sunk beyond shame as well because he could not find a shred of ree He would not, could not subain He would starve and die in a filthy gutter, rather than go crawling back

He left fully aware that he’d have to survive entirely on his own The earl would randson

And so Dorian went to London There he assunificanttenements of the East End—and eht There was no future in either occupation, but then, he had no future, with all respectable doors shut to him Still, even when the dock work dwindled from tier of their running out of docuery threatened to crush his spirit, a few coins could buy him the temporary surcease of a relatively clean whore and a bottle

The randfather waited for the prodigal to crawl back on his hands and knees and the prodigal waited for his grandfather to die

But the influenza epideo, two aunts, and several cousins in 1826 left their lord and master untouched

Then, in the summer of 1827, Dorian suddenly fell ill—and sank into a decline