"I said nothing."
"Do you know anything of the commissionnaire?"
"Nothing except that he is an old soldier."
"What regiment?"
"Oh, I have heard--Coldstream Guards."
"Thank you. I have no doubt I can get details from Forbes. Theauthorities are excellent at amassing facts, though they do not alwaysuse them to advantage. What a lovely thing a rose is!"
He walked past the couch to the open window, and held up the droopingstalk of a moss-rose, looking down at the dainty blend of crimson andgreen. It was a new phase of his character to me, for I had never beforeseen him show any keen interest in natural objects.
"There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion,"said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. "It can be builtup as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of thegoodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All otherthings, our powers our desires, our food, are all really necessary forour existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Itssmell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it.It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we havemuch to hope from the flowers."
Percy Phelps and his nurse looked at Holmes during this demonstrationwith surprise and a good deal of disappointment written upon theirfaces. He had fallen into a reverie, with the moss-rose between hisfingers. It had lasted some minutes before the young lady broke in uponit.
"Do you see any prospect of solving this mystery, Mr. Holmes?" sheasked, with a touch of asperity in her voice.
"Oh, the mystery!" he answered, coming back with a start to therealities of life. "Well, it would be absurd to deny that the case isa very abstruse and complicated one, but I can promise you that I willlook into the matter and let you know any points which may strike me."
"Do you see any clue?"
"You have furnished me with seven, but, of course, I must test thembefore I can pronounce upon their value."
"You suspect some one?"
"I suspect myself."
"What!"
"Of coming to conclusions too rapidly."
"Then go to London and test your conclusions."
"Your advice is very excellent, Miss Harrison," said Holmes, rising. "Ithink, Watson, we cannot do better. Do not allow yourself to indulge infalse hopes, Mr. Phelps. The affair is a very tangled one."
"I shall be in a fever until I see you again," cried the diplomatist.
"Well, I'll come out by the same train to-morrow, though it's more thanlikely that my report will be a negative one."
"God bless you for promising to come," cried our client. "It gives mefresh life to know that something is being done. By the way, I have hada letter from Lord Holdhurst."
"Ha! What did he say?"
"He was cold, but not harsh. I dare say my severe illness preventedhim from being that. He repeated that the matter was of the utmostimportance, and added that no steps would be taken about my future--bywhich he means, of course, my dismissal--until my health was restoredand I had an opportunity of repairing my misfortune."
"Well, that was reasonable and considerate," said Holmes. "Come, Watson,for we have a good day's work before us in town."
Mr. Joseph Harrison drove us down to the station, and we were soonwhirling up in a Portsmouth train. Holmes was sunk in profound thought,and hardly opened his mouth until we had passed Clapham Junction.
"It's a very cheery thing to come into London by any of these lineswhich run high, and allow you to look down upon the houses like this."
I thought he was joking, for the view was sordid enough, but he soonexplained himself.
"Look at those big, isolated clumps of building rising up above theslates, like brick islands in a lead-colored sea."
"The board-schools."