One
"Well, Mrs. Warren, I cannot see that you have any particular cause for
uneasiness, nor do I understand why I, whose time is of some value,
should interfere in the matter. I really have other things to engage me."
So spoke Sherlock Holmes and turned back to the great scrapbook in
which he was arranging and indexing some of his recent material.
But the landlady had the pertinacity and also the cunning of her sex.
She held her ground firmly.
"You arranged an affair for a lodger of mine last year," she said--"Mr.
Fairdale Hobbs."
"Ah, yes--a simple matter."
"But he would never cease talking of it--your kindness, sir, and the
way in which you brought light into the darkness. I remembered his
words when I was in doubt and darkness myself. I know you could if
you only would."
Holmes was accessible upon the side of flattery, and also, to do him
justice, upon the side of kindliness. The two forces made him lay down
his gum-brush with a sigh of resignation and push back his chair.
"Well, well, Mrs. Warren, let us hear about it, then. You don\'t object
to tobacco, I take it? Thank you, Watson--the matches! You are uneasy,
as I understand, because your new lodger remains in his rooms and you
cannot see him. Why, bless you, Mrs. Warren, if I were your lodger you
often would not see me for weeks on end."
"No doubt, sir; but this is different. It frightens me, Mr. Holmes. I
can\'t sleep for fright. To hear his quick step moving here and moving
there from early morning to late at night, and yet never to catch so much
as a glimpse of him--it\'s more than I can stand. My husband is as
nervous over it as I am, but he is out at his work all day, while I get no rest
from it. What is he hiding for? What has he done? Except for the girl,
I am all alone in the house with him, and it\'s more than my nerves can
stand."