The Villainous Viscount

Lord Venn is making an ardent proposal to the sixth heiress on his list when a hooded spectre appears in a crack of thunder. This hereditary curse is becoming inconvenient - particularly as Venn is next in line on the curse's own schedule of victims. Clarinda Greendale has other reasons for rejecting Venn besides his being cursed - such as his being a wild, brawling social outcast and a fortune hunter. Lord Venn dismisses the history of the curse as a series of conjuring tricks. Still, Venn needs to get his hands on an heiress, and tender hearted Clarinda would like to help Venn if she could: she just doesn't want to marry him and end up as part of his outrageous household... Meanwhile, the hooded spectre closes in. Can the drunken charlatan who Venn has hired to prove that it is all a hoax help him?