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.... A great irresponsible genius.... Difficult to help.... I wish I could do more for him.”