A Study In Scarlet | Page 4

be delighted to
see me. In the exuberance of my joy, I asked him to lunch with me at
the Holborn, and we started off together in a hansom.
"Whatever have you been doing with yourself, Watson?" he asked in
undisguised wonder, as we rattled through the crowded London streets.
"You are as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut."
I gave him a short sketch of my adventures, and had hardly concluded
it by the time that we reached our destination.
"Poor devil!" he said, commiseratingly, after he had listened to my
misfortunes. "What are you up to now?"
"Looking for lodgings." {3} I answered. "Trying to solve the problem
as to whether it is possible to get comfortable rooms at a reasonable
price."
"That's a strange thing," remarked my companion; "you are the second
man to-day that has used that expression to me."
"And who was the first?" I asked.

"A fellow who is working at the chemical laboratory up at the hospital.
He was bemoaning himself this morning because he could not get
someone to go halves with him in some nice rooms which he had found,
and which were too much for his purse."
"By Jove!" I cried, "if he really wants someone to share the rooms and
the expense, I am the very man for him. I should prefer having a
partner to being alone."
Young Stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wine-glass.
"You don't know Sherlock Holmes yet," he said; "perhaps you would
not care for him as a constant companion."
"Why, what is there against him?"
"Oh, I didn't say there was anything against him. He is a little queer in
his ideas -- an enthusiast in some branches of science. As far as I know
he is a decent fellow enough."
"A medical student, I suppose?" said I.
"No -- I have no idea what he intends to go in for. I believe he is well
up in anatomy, and he is a first-class chemist; but, as far as I know, he
has never taken out any systematic medical classes. His studies are very
desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of out-of-the way
knowledge which would astonish his professors."
"Did you never ask him what he was going in for?" I asked.
"No; he is not a man that it is easy to draw out, though he can be
communicative enough when the fancy seizes him."
"I should like to meet him," I said. "If I am to lodge with anyone, I
should prefer a man of studious and quiet habits. I am not strong
enough yet to stand much noise or excitement. I had enough of both in
Afghanistan to last me for the remainder of my natural existence. How
could I meet this friend of yours?"

"He is sure to be at the laboratory," returned my companion. "He either
avoids the place for weeks, or else he works there from morning to
night. If you like, we shall drive round together after luncheon."
"Certainly," I answered, and the conversation drifted away into other
channels.
As we made our way to the hospital after leaving the Holborn,
Stamford gave me a few more particulars about the gentleman whom I
proposed to take as a fellow-lodger.
"You mustn't blame me if you don't get on with him," he said; "I know
nothing more of him than I have learned from meeting him
occasionally in the laboratory. You proposed this arrangement, so you
must not hold me responsible."
"If we don't get on it will be easy to part company," I answered. "It
seems to me, Stamford," I added, looking hard at my companion, "that
you have some reason for washing your hands of the matter. Is this
fellow's temper so formidable, or what is it? Don't be mealy-mouthed
about it."
"It is not easy to express the inexpressible," he answered with a laugh.
"Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes -- it approaches to
cold-bloodedness. I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of
the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand,
but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of
the effects. To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with
the same readiness. He appears to have a passion for definite and exact
knowledge."
"Very right too."
"Yes, but it may be pushed to excess. When it comes to beating the
subjects in the dissecting-rooms with a stick, it is certainly taking rather
a bizarre shape."
"Beating the subjects!"

"Yes, to verify how far bruises may be produced after death. I saw him
at it with my own eyes."
"And yet you say he is not a medical