The Doings of Raffles Haw

The Doings of Raffles Haw is a classic novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in which billionaire Raffles Haw comes to the village of Tamfield and builds an spectacular and novel house, replete with labor-saving mechanisms and expensive furnishings, from which he embarks on a campaign of calculated acts of seeming goodness.A mysterious millionaire, Raffles Haw, comes to reside in Tamfield in Staffordshire. Even before Raffles Haw arrives, people start gossiping about him. As his house is being constructed, people wonder at the number of workers, their speed, and the complete disregard for the amount of money spent. When Raffles Haw arrives, he acquaints himself with the McIntyre family, which consists of Robert, his sister Laura, and their father. McIntyre senior had been a prosperous gun merchant, but has gone bankrupt and lost his sanity. Laura is engaged to Hector, the son of the vicar, Mr. Spurling. Hector is a sailor who is summoned for Naval duty at the beginning of the novel.Disregarding McIntyre senior as a greedy beggar, Raffles Haw sets about to alleviate the misery of the people of Tamfield through the agency of the McIntyre siblings and Mr. Spurling. He saves many families and businesses with his timely financial succour. He has limitless funds, due to having discovered a process to turn lead into gold.With the passage of time, Raffles Haw becomes disillusioned because his philanthropic activities-though they improve the situations of the recipients-don't improve the recipients themselves. Instead of becoming better citizens, most become parasites reliant upon alms from the millionaire. Despondent, Raffles Haw seeks the counsel of his fiancée, Laura McIntyre, the one person he supposes to be true to him. Unbeknownst to him, Laura has accepted his proposal of marriage without ending her previous engagement to Hector Spurling. As Raffles and Laura are talking, Hector enters the room, his service having ended earlier than expected. When Raffles discovers Laura and Hector are still engaged, he is heartbroken.