ADVENTURE I. A SCANDAL IN BOHEMIA
I.
To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heardhim mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipsesand predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he feltany emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and thatone particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise butadmirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfectreasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as alover he would have placed himself in a false position. He neverspoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. Theywere admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing theveil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasonerto admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finelyadjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor whichmight throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in asensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-powerlenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in anature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, andthat woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionablememory.
I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted usaway from each other. My own complete happiness, and thehome-centred interests which rise up around the man who firstfinds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient toabsorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form ofsociety with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings inBaker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating fromweek to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of thedrug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still,as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied hisimmense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation infollowing out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries whichhad been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From timeto time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summonsto Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing upof the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee,and finally of the mission which he had accomplished sodelicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland.Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merelyshared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little ofmy former friend and companion.
One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I wasreturning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned tocivil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As Ipassed the well-remembered door, which must always be associatedin my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of theStudy in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmesagain, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers.His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I sawhis tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette againstthe blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his headsunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, whoknew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told theirown story. He was at work again. He had risen out of hisdrug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some newproblem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber whichhad formerly been in part my own.
His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, Ithink, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindlyeye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars,and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then hestood before the fire and looked me over in his singularintrospective fashion.
"Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you haveput on seven and a half pounds since I saw you."
"Seven!" I answered.
"Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more,I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did nottell me that you intended to go into harness."
"Then, how do you know?"
"I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been gettingyourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy andcareless servant girl?"
"My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainlyhave been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is truethat I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadfulmess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how youdeduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife hasgiven her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work itout."
He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous handstogether.
"It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on theinside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it,the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously theyhave been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped roundthe edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it.Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vileweather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slittingspecimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if agentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a blackmark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulgeon the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secretedhis stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronouncehim to be an active member of the medical profession."
I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained hisprocess of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," Iremarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculouslysimple that I could easily do it myself, though at eachsuccessive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until youexplain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as goodas yours."
"Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwinghimself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe.The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seenthe steps which lead up from the hall to this room."
"Frequently."
"How often?"
"Well, some hundreds of times."
"Then how many are there?"
"How many? I don't know."
"Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That isjust my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps,because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you areinterested in these little problems, and since you are goodenough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, youmay be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick,pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table."It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud."
The note was undated, and without either signature or address.
"There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eighto'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon amatter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one ofthe royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who maysafely be trusted with matters which are of an importance whichcan hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from allquarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and donot take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask."
"This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine thatit means?"
"I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize beforeone has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suittheories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself.What do you deduce from it?"