The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Part 10 (2/2)
”And have you any on hand just now?” I asked with interest
”Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of interest They are i Indeed, I have found that it is usually in unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the charer crier the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter which has been referred towhich presents any features of interest It is possible, however, that Ibetter before very many minutes are over, for this is one of my clients, or I am muchbetween the parted blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street
Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavee wo red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was tilted in a coquettish duchess of Devonshi+re fashi+on over her ear Froreat panoply she peeped up in a nervous, hesitating fashi+on at our hile her body oscillated backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove buttons Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp clang of the bell
”I have seen those syarette into the fire ”Oscillation upon the pavement always means an affaire de coeur She would like advice, but is not sure that the matter is not too delicate for communication And yet even here we ed by a er oscillates, and the usual symptom is a broken bell wire Here we may take it that there is a love ry as perplexed, or grieved But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts”
As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself looure like a full-sailed merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat Sherlock Holmes welcomed her with the easy courtesy for which he was re closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashi+on which was peculiar to hiht it is a little trying to do so ?”
”I did at first,” she answered, ”but now I knohere the letters are without looking” Then, suddenly realising the full purport of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear and astonishood-humoured face ”You've heard about me, Mr Holmes,” she cried, ”else how could you know all that?”
”Never s Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others overlook If not, why should you come to consult me?”
”I cae, whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had given him up for dead Oh, Mr Holmes, I wish you would do as much for me I'ht, besides the little that I ive it all to knohat has becoel”
”Why did you come away to consult er-tips together and his eyes to the ceiling
Again a startled look came over the so out of the house,” she said, ”for it ry to see the easy way in which Mr
Windibank--that is, o to the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no hars and caht away to you”
”Your father,” said Holmes, ”your stepfather, surely, since the name is different”
”Yes, h it sounds funny, too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself”
”And your mother is alive?”
”Oh, yes, mother is alive and well I wasn't best pleased, Mr
Holain so soon after father's death, and a er than herself Father was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr Hardy, the foreman; but when Mr Windibank came hea traveller in wines
They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't near as ot if he had been alive”
I had expected to see Sherlock Hol and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he had listened with the greatest concentration of attention
”Your own little income,” he asked, ”does it come out of the business?”
”Oh, no, sir It is quite separate and was left me by4 1/2 per cent Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can only touch the interest”
”You interest e a suain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in every way I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely upon an income of about 60 pounds”
”I could do with much less than that, Mr Hol as I live at home I don't wish to be a burden to them, and so they have the use of thewith them Of course, that is only just for the time Mr Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty hat I earn at typewriting It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day”
”You have made your position very clear to me,” said Holmes
”This is my friend, Dr Watson, before whom you can speak as freely as before myself Kindly tell us now all about your connection with Mr Hosel”