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"In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" |
"Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I will |
not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to without |
success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." |
"Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said Holmes, |
smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have nearly all my |
data. May I ask whether you were seated at the breakfast-table so |
that you could see out of the window?" |
"We could see the other side of the road and the Park." |
"Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. I |
shall communicate with you." |
"Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our |
client, rising. |
"I have solved it." |
"Eh? What was that?" |
"I say that I have solved it." |
"Where, then, is my wife?" |
"That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." |
Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take wiser |
heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a stately, |
old-fashioned manner he departed. |
"It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting it on |
a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I think that |
I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all this |
cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the case before |
our client came into the room." |
"My dear Holmes!" |
"I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I remarked |
before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination served to |
turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial evidence is |
occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, |
to quote Thoreau's example." |
"But I have heard all that you have heard." |
"Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which serves |
me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some years |
back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich the year |
after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these cases--but, hullo, |
here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! You will find an extra |
tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are cigars in the box." |
The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, which |
gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a black |
canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated himself and |
lit the cigar which had been offered to him. |
"What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You look |
dissatisfied." |
"And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage |
case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." |
"Really! You surprise me." |
"Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip |
through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." |
"And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his hand |
upon the arm of the pea-jacket. |
"Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." |
"In heaven's name, what for?" |
"In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." |
Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. |
"Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he asked. |
"Why? What do you mean?" |
"Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in the |
one as in the other." |
Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you know |
all about it," he snarled. |
"Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." |
"Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in the |
matter?" |
"I think it very unlikely." |
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