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elapt1c
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ElapticAI-512

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accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she meant.
“American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your wife do
when she finished speaking to her maid?
“She walked into the breakfast-room.
“On your arm?
“No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. Then,
after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose hurriedly,
muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She never came
back.
“But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to her
room, covered her bride’s dress with a long ulster, put on a bonnet,
and went out.
“Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in
company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who had
already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran’s house that morning.
“Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, and
your relations to her.
Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. “We have
been on a friendly footing for some years—I may say on a very
friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have not treated her
ungenerously, and she had no just cause of complaint against me, but
you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. Flora was a dear little thing, but
exceedingly hot-headed and devotedly attached to me. She wrote me
dreadful letters when she heard that I was about to be married, and, to
tell the truth, the reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly
was that I feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came
to Mr. Doran’s door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to push
her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my wife, and even
threatening her, but I had foreseen the possibility of something of the
sort, and I had two police fellows there in private clothes, who soon
pushed her out again. She was quiet when she saw that there was no good
in making a row.
“Did your wife hear all this?
“No, thank goodness, she did not.
“And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?
“Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as so
serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid some
terrible trap for her.
“Well, it is a possible supposition.
“You think so, too?
“I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon this
as likely?
“I do not think Flora would hurt a fly.
“Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray what is
your own theory as to what took place?
“Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I have
given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may say that it
has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of this affair, the
consciousness that she had made so immense a social stride, had the
effect of causing some little nervous disturbance in my wife.
“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,