"I think," said he, "that we shall be of more use in London than inNorbury."
Not another word did he say of the case until late that night, when hewas turning away, with his lighted candle, for his bedroom.
"Watson," said he, "if it should ever strike you that I am getting alittle over-confident in my powers, or giving less pains to a casethan it deserves, kindly whisper 'Norbury' in my ear, and I shall beinfinitely obliged to you."
Adventure III. The Stock-Broker's Clerk
Shortly after my marriage I had bought a connection in the Paddingtondistrict. Old Mr. Farquhar, from whom I purchased it, had at one time anexcellent general practice; but his age, and an affliction of the natureof St. Vitus's dance from which he suffered, had very much thinned it.The public not unnaturally goes on the principle that he who would healothers must himself be whole, and looks askance at the curative powersof the man whose own case is beyond the reach of his drugs. Thus as mypredecessor weakened his practice declined, until when I purchasedit from him it had sunk from twelve hundred to little more than threehundred a year. I had confidence, however, in my own youth and energy,and was convinced that in a very few years the concern would be asflourishing as ever.
For three months after taking over the practice I was kept very closelyat work, and saw little of my friend Sherlock Holmes, for I was too busyto visit Baker Street, and he seldom went anywhere himself save uponprofessional business. I was surprised, therefore, when, one morning inJune, as I sat reading the British Medical Journal after breakfast, Iheard a ring at the bell, followed by the high, somewhat strident tonesof my old companion's voice.
"Ah, my dear Watson," said he, striding into the room, "I am verydelighted to see you! I trust that Mrs. Watson has entirely recoveredfrom all the little excitements connected with our adventure of the Signof Four."
"Thank you, we are both very well," said I, shaking him warmly by thehand.
"And I hope, also," he continued, sitting down in the rocking-chair,"that the cares of medical practice have not entirely obliterated theinterest which you used to take in our little deductive problems."
"On the contrary," I answered, "it was only last night that I waslooking over my old notes, and classifying some of our past results."
"I trust that you don't consider your collection closed."
"Not at all. I should wish nothing better than to have some more of suchexperiences."
"To-day, for example?"
"Yes, to-day, if you like."
"And as far off as Birmingham?"
"Certainly, if you wish it."
"And the practice?"
"I do my neighbor's when he goes. He is always ready to work off thedebt."
"Ha! Nothing could be better," said Holmes, leaning back in his chairand looking keenly at me from under his half closed lids. "I perceivethat you have been unwell lately. Summer colds are always a littletrying."
"I was confined to the house by a severe chill for three days last week.I thought, however, that I had cast off every trace of it."
"So you have. You look remarkably robust."
"How, then, did you know of it?"
"My dear fellow, you know my methods."
"You deduced it, then?"
"Certainly."
"And from what?"
"From your slippers."
I glanced down at the new patent leathers which I was wearing. "How onearth--" I began, but Holmes answered my question before it was asked.
"Your slippers are new," he said. "You could not have had them more thana few weeks. The soles which you are at this moment presenting to me areslightly scorched. For a moment I thought they might have got wet andbeen burned in the drying. But near the instep there is a small circularwafer of paper with the shopman's hieroglyphics upon it. Damp would ofcourse have removed this. You had, then, been sitting with your feetoutstretched to the fire, which a man would hardly do even in so wet aJune as this if he were in his full health."
Like all Holmes's reasoning the thing seemed simplicity itself when itwas once explained. He read the thought upon my features, and his smilehad a tinge of bitterness.