The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Page 6

pockets, he stretched
out his legs in front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes.
"Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again until he
was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the chair.
"What is it?"
"It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I employed
my morning, or what I ended by doing."
"I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the habits, and
perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler."
"Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, however. I
left the house a little after eight o'clock this morning in the character of
a groom out of work. There is a wonderful sympathy and freemasonry
among horsey men. Be one of them, and you will know all that there is
to know. I soon found Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at
the back, but built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb
lock to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well furnished,
with long windows almost to the floor, and those preposterous English
window fasteners which a child could open. Behind there was nothing
remarkable, save that the passage window could be reached from the
top of the coach-house. I walked round it and examined it closely from
every point of view, but without noting anything else of interest.
"I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that there was
a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the garden. I lent the
ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, and received in exchange
twopence, a glass of half and half, two fills of shag tobacco, and as
much information as I could desire about Miss Adler, to say nothing of
half a dozen other people in the neighbourhood in whom I was not in
the least interested, but whose biographies I was compelled to listen
to."

"And what of Irene Adler?" I asked.
"Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is the
daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the
Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, drives
out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for dinner. Seldom
goes out at other times, except when she sings. Has only one male
visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, handsome, and dashing,
never calls less than once a day, and often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey
Norton, of the Inner Temple. See the advantages of a cabman as a
confidant. They had driven him home a dozen times from
Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. When I had listened to all
they had to tell, I began to walk up and down near Briony Lodge once
more, and to think over my plan of campaign.
"This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the matter.
He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the relation
between them, and what the object of his repeated visits? Was she his
client, his friend, or his mistress? If the former, she had probably
transferred the photograph to his keeping. If the latter, it was less likely.
On the issue of this question depended whether I should continue my
work at Briony Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's
chambers in the Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the
field of my inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have
to let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the
situation."
"I am following you closely," I answered.
"I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab drove
up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a remarkably
handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached-- evidently the man of
whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a great hurry, shouted to the
cabman to wait, and brushed past the maid who opened the door with
the air of a man who was thoroughly at home.
"He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch glimpses of
him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and down, talking

excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see nothing. Presently
he emerged, looking even more flurried than before. As he stepped up
to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from his pocket and looked at it
earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's
in Regent Street, and then to the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware
Road. Half a guinea if you do it