Through the agency of my solicitor, the deal was quickly done. Although there was, for a brief time, some opposition on the part of certain local officials, I was, as ever, persistent.
My success in this endeavor was also due, in no small part, to the considerable estate left to me by my late lamented bride. She was, alas, taken from this earthly coil far too soon. Not a day goes by, I hasten to assure you, that I fail to mourn her unfortunate and untimely passing.
Yet life goes on, and the wheels of fate will turn. There was a moment, I must duly confess, when I hesitated upon the occasion of my eccentric purchase, thinking upon that sainted memory.
I asked myself whether she, my late beloved, would have shared my strange fascination with this sepulchral abode. For she had been a creature of air and light, a luminous being from above, clearly put upon this earth by the angels themselves.
What then would my beloved have thought of my desire to take possession of this unholy abode? In the end I fancied that she would have approved, simply out of love for me and my quaint obsessions.
At least I assumed that this would have been her wish. Yet perhaps we should not assume too much of the dead.