The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

s only natural that I should dwell rather upon his successes than upon his failures. And this not so much for the sake of his reputation — for, indeed, it was when he was at his wit’s end th

have notes of some half-dozen cases of the kind, the adventure of the Musgrave Ritual and t

of energy, and he seldom bestirred himself save where there was some professional object to be served. Then he was absolutely untiring and indefatigable. That he should have kept himself in training under such circumstances is remarkable, but his diet was usua

the elms, and the sticky spear-heads of the chestnuts were just beginning to burst into their five-fold leaves. For two hours we rambled about toget

as he opened the door. “There’s been

“So much for afternoon walks!” said

s,

you ask

ir, he

ng did

t last he outs into the passage, and he cries, ‘Is that man never goin’ to come?’ Those were his very words, sir. ‘You’ll only need to wait a little longer,’ says I. ‘Th

were of importance. Hullo! that’s not your pipe on the table. He must have left his behind him. A nice old brier with a good long stem of what the tobacconists call amber. I wonder how many rea

that he values it

den stem and once in the amber. Each of these mends, done, as you observe, with silver bands, must have cost more than the pipe

turning the pipe about in his hand and

is long, thin forefinger, as a profes

d bootlaces. The indications here, however, are neither very marked nor very important. The owner is obviously a musc

offhand way, but I saw that he cocked his ey

ell-to-do if he smokes a s

ed, knocking a little out on his palm. “As he might get an excell

e other

bowl charred. And it is all on the right side of the pipe. From that I gather that he is a left-handed man. You hold your own pipe to the lamp and see how naturally you, being right-handed, hold the left side to the flame. You might do it once the other way, but not as a const

ll but quietly dressed in a dark gray suit and carried a brown wide-awake in his h

hould have knocked. The fact is that I am a little upset, and you must put it all down to that.” He passed

es in his easy, genial way. “That tries a man’s nerves more than

’t know what to do, and my whole

loy me as a cons

n — as a man of the world. I want to know what I ough

to me that to speak at all was very painful to him, and

ngers. It seems dreadful to discuss the conduct of one’s wife with two men whom I have never seen be

Grant Munro —

his chair. “What!” he cr

he person whom you are addressing. I was about to say that my friend and I have listened to a good many strange secrets in this room, and that we have had the good fortune to bring peac

uld see that he was a reserved, self-contained man, with a dash of pride in his nature, more likely to hide his wounds than

any two that ever were joined. We have not had a difference, not one, in thought or word or deed. And now, since last Monday, there has suddenly sprung up a barrier between us, and I

e about that. She loves me with her whole heart and soul, and never more than now. I know it. I feel it. I don’t want to argue about that.

acts, Mr. Munro,” said Ho

ctice. They had one child, but the yellow fever broke out badly in the place, and both husband and child died of it. I have seen his death certificate. This sickened her of America, and she came back to live with a maiden aunt at Pinner, in Middlesex. I may mention that her husband had left her co

so close to town. We had an inn and two houses a little above us, and a single cottage at the other side of the field which faces us, and except those there were no houses until you got halfway to the station. My business took me

er property to me — rather against my will, for I saw how awkward it would be if my business affairs

my money you said that if ever I w

said I. ‘It’s

he, ‘I want a h

d imagined it was simply a new dress or

earth for?

u said that you were only my banker, an

, of course you shall h

, I reall

tell me what y

ps, but not just

ny secret between us. I gave her a check, and I never thought any more of the matter. It m

t is a nice little grove of Scotch firs, and I used to be very fond of strolling down there, for trees are always a neighbourly kind of thing. The cottage had been standing empty this eight month

ss-plot beside the porch. It was clear that the cottage had at last been let. I walked past it, and then stopping, as an idle man might, I ran my eye over it and won

watching me. But as I did so the face suddenly disappeared, so suddenly that it seemed to have been plucked away into the darkness of the room. I stood for five minutes thinking the business over and trying to analyze my impressions. I could not tell if the face was that of a man or a woman. It had been too far from me for that. But its colour w

antin’?’ she asked

ds my house. ‘I see that you have only just moved in, so

y mind would still turn to the apparition at the window and the rudeness of the woman. I determined to say nothing about the former to my wife, for she is a nervous, highly strung woman, and I had no wis

on her mantle and her bonnet. My lips were parted to murmur out some sleepy words of surprise or remonstrance at this untimely preparation, when suddenly my half-opened eyes fell upon her face, illuminated by the candle-light, and astonishment held me dumb. She wore an expression such as I had never seen before — such as I should have thought her incapable of assuming. She was deadly pale and breathing fast, glancing furtively towards the bed as she fastened her mantl

le explanation. The more I thought, the more extraordinary and inexplicable did it appear. I was sti

ave you been, Effie?’

est, for there was something indescribably guilty about them. My wife had always been a woman of a frank, open nature, a

th a nervous laugh. ‘Why, I thou

u been?’ I aske

I never remember having done such a thing in my life before. The fact is that I felt as though I were choking and had a perfect longing for a breath

rned my face to the wall, sick at heart, with my mind filled with a thousand venomous doubts and suspicions. What was it that my wife was concealing from me? Where had she been during that strange expedition? I felt that I s

and I could see from the little questioning glances which she kept shooting at me that she understood that I disbelieved her statement, and that she was at her wit’s e

past the cottage, and I stopped for an instant to look at the windows and to see if I could catch a glimpse of the strange face which had

er face when our eyes met. She seemed for an instant to wish to shrink back inside the house again; and then, seeing how usele

can be of any assistance to our new neighbours. Why do y

s is where you went

you mean?’

Who are these people that you sh

ot been he

ice changes as you speak. When have I ever had a secret from you? I s

lable emotion. Then, as I approached the door, she seize

everything some day, but nothing but misery can come of it if you enter that cot

t I would not have a secret from you if it were not for your own sake. Our whole lives are at stake in this.

, in her manner that her words arrested m

ou are at liberty to preserve your secret, but you must promise me that there shall be no more nightly visits, no more doings which a

ith a great sigh of relief. ‘It shall be just as y

out of the upper window. What link could there be between that creature and my wife? Or how could the coarse, rough woman whom I had seen t

s I know, she never stirred out of the house. On the third day however, I had ample evidence that her solemn prom

40 instead of the 3:36, which is my usual train. As I enter

your mistre

has gone out for a

e. Then of course I saw exactly what it all meant. My wife had gone over there and had asked the servant to call her if I should return. Tingling with anger, I rushed down and hurried across, determined to end the matter once and forever. I saw my wife and the maid hurrying back

ted. Then I rushed up the stairs only to find two other rooms empty and deserted at the top. There was no one at all in the whole house. The furniture and pictures were of the most common and vulgar description, save in the one chamber at the window of which I

such as I had never had before. My wife came out into the hall as I entered my house; but I was too hurt and angry to sp

’ said she, ‘but if you knew all the circum

erything, th

ack, I cannot

ve not seen her since, nor do I know anything more about this strange business. It is the first shadow that has come between us, and it has so shaken me that I do not know what I should do for the best. Suddenly this morning it occurred to me that you were the m

been delivered in the jerky, broken fashion of a man who is under the influence of extreme emo

d you swear that this was a man’s

ome distance away from it so tha

to have been disagre

have a strange rigidity about the features.

your wife asked you

y two

n a photograph of

anta very shortly after his death,

tificate of death. You

a duplicate af

t anyone who knew

N

talk of revisi

N

letters

N

coming and left before you entered yesterday, then they may be back now, and we should clear it all up easily. Let me advise you, then, to return to Norbury and to examine the windows of the cottage again. If you have

t is stil

over with you. Good-bye, and, above all, do not fre

aid my companion as he returned after accompanying M

ugly sound,

kmail in it, or I

is the bl

her photograph above his fireplace. Upon my word, Watson, there is something very attract

ave a

ised if it does not turn out to be correct. T

you th

we may suppose, by some unscrupulous woman who has attached herself to the invalid. They write to the wife and threaten to come and expose her. She asks for a hundred pounds and endeavours to buy them off. They come in spite of it, and when the husband mentions casually to the wife that there are newcomers in the cottage, she knows in some way that they are her pursuers. She waits until her husband is asleep and then she rushes down to endeavour to persuade them to leave her in peace. Having no success, she goes again next morning, and her husband meets her, as he has told us, as she comes out. She promises him then not to go there again, but two

all s

e which cannot be covered by it, it will be time enough to reconsider it.

e to wait for that. It came ju

the face again at the window. Will meet the seven-o

and we could see in the light of the station lamps

d hard upon my friend’s sleeve. “I saw lights in the cottag

asked Holmes as he walked d

e for myself who is in the house. I w

ite of your wife’s warning that it is bett

am det

inite doubt. We had better go up at once. Of course, legally, we are put

road into a narrow lane, deeply rutted, with hedges on either side. Mr. Grant Munr

d, pointing to a glimmer among the trees. “And

r falling across the black foreground showed that the door was not quite closed, and one window in

You can see for yourselves that someone is the

and stood in the golden track of the lamplight. I could not see her face

nt that you would come this evening. Think better of it, dear

He pushed her to one side, and we followed closely after him. As he threw the door open an old woman ran out in front of him and tried to bar his passage, b

had long white gloves on. As she whisked round to us, I gave a cry of surprise and horror. The face which she turned towards us was of the strangest livid tint, and the features were absolutely devoid of any expression. An instant later the mystery was explained. Holmes, with a laugh, passed his han

. “What can be the

proud, set face. “You have forced me, against my own judgment, to tell you, and n

r ch

cket from her bosom. “You

d that it di

it within of a man strikingly handsome and intelligent-looking, but

was given to the care of a faithful Scotch woman who had once been our servant. Never for an instant did I dream of disowning her as my child. But when chance threw you in my way, Jack, and I learned to love you, I feared to tell you about my child. God forgive me, I feared that I should lose you, and I had not the courage to tell you. I had to choose between you, and in my weakness I turned away from my own little girl. For three years I have kept her existence a secret from you, but I heard from the nurse, and I knew that all was well with her. At last, however, there came an overwhelming desire to see the child once more. I struggled against it, but in v

ut you saw me go, and that was the beginning of my troubles. Next day you had my secret at your mercy, but you nobly refrained from pursuing your advantage. Three days later, however, the nurse and child only

e it was one of which I love to think. He lifted the little child, kissed her, and then

. “I am not a very good man, Effie, but I think that I

n the lane, and my friend pluc

we shall be of more use

il late that night, when he was turning awa

nfident in my powers, or giving less pains to a case than it deserves, kindly whis