“I don’t admit that a fresh illustration is an explanation,” said Iwith some asperity.
“Bravo, Watson! A very dignified and logical remonstrance. Letme see, what were the points? Take the last one first—the cab. Youobserve that you have some splashes on the left sleeve and shoulderof your coat. Had you sat in the centre of a hansom you wouldprobably have had no splashes, and if you had they would certainlyhave been symmetrical. Therefore it is clear that you sat at the side.
Therefore it is equally clear that you had a companion.”
“That is very evident.”
“Absurdly commonplace, is it not?”
“But the boots and the bath?”
“Equally childish. You are in the habit of doing up your bootsin a certain way. I see them on this occasion fastened with anelaborate double bow, which is not your usual method of tyingthem. You have, therefore, had them off. Who has tied them? Abootmaker—or the boy at the bath. It is unlikely that it is thebootmaker, since your boots are nearly new. Well, what remains?
The bath. Absurd, is it not? But, for all that, the Turkish bath hasserved a purpose.”
“What is that?”
“You say that you have had it because you need a change. Letme suggest that you take one. How would Lausanne do, my dearWatson—first-class tickets and all expenses paid on a princelyscale?”
“Splendid! But why?”
Holmes leaned back in his armchair and took his notebookfrom his pocket.
“One of the most dangerous classes in the world,” said he, “isthe drifting and friendless woman. She is the most harmless andoften the most useful of mortals, but she is the inevitable inciterof crime in others. She is helpless. She is migratory. She hassufficient means to take her from country to country and fromhotel to hotel. She is lost, as often as not, in a maze of obscurepensions and boarding-houses. She is a stray chicken in a world offoxes. When she is gobbled up she is hardly missed. I much fearthat some evil has come to the Lady Frances Carfax.”
1184 The Complete Sherlock Holmes
I was relieved at this sudden descent from the general to theparticular. Holmes consulted his notes.
“Lady Frances,” he continued, “is the sole survivor of the directfamily of the late Earl of Rufton. The estates went, as you mayremember, in the male line. She was left with limited means, butwith some very remarkable old Spanish jewellery of silver andcuriously cut diamonds to which she was fondly attached—tooattached, for she refused to leave them with her banker and alwayscarried them about with her. A rather pathetic figure, the LadyFrances, a beautiful woman, still in fresh middle age, and yet, by astrange change, the last derelict of what only twenty years ago wasgoodly fleet.”
“What has happened to her, then?”
“Ah, what has happened to the Lady Frances? Is she alive ordead? There is our problem. She is a lady of precise habits, and forfour years it has been her invariable custom to write every secondweek to Miss Dobney, her old governess, who has long retired andlives in Camberwell. It is this Miss Dobney who has consulted me.
Nearly five weeks have passed without a word. The last letter wasfrom the Hotel National at Lausanne. Lady Frances seems to haveleft there and given no address. The family are anxious, and asthey are exceedingly wealthy no sum will be spared if we can clearthe matter up.”
“Is Miss Dobney the only source of information? Surely she hadother correspondents?”
“There is one correspondent who is a sure draw, Watson. Thatthe bank. Single ladies must live, and their passbooks arecompressed diaries. She banks at Silvester’s. I have glanced overher account. The last check but one paid her bill at Lausanne, butwas a large one and probably left her with cash in hand. Onlyone check has been drawn since.”
“To whom, and where?”
“To Miss Marie Devine. There is nothing to show wherethe check was drawn. It was cashed at the Credit Lyonnais atMontpellier less than three weeks ago. The sum was fifty pounds.”
“And who is Miss Marie Devine?”
“That also I have been able to discover. Miss Marie Devine wasthe maid of Lady Frances Carfax. Why she should have paid herthis check we have not yet determined. I have no doubt, however,that your researches will soon clear the matter up.”
“MY researches!”
“Hence the health-giving expedition to Lausanne. You knowthat I cannot possibly leave London while old Abrahams is insuch mortal terror of his life. Besides, on general principles it isbest that I should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonelyThe Adventure of Wisteria Lodge 1185
without me, and it causes an unhealthy excitement among thecriminal classes. Go, then, my dear Watson, and if my humblecounsel can ever be valued at so extravagant a rate as two pencea word, it waits your disposal night and day at the end of theContinental wire.”
Two days later found me at the H?tel National at Lausanne,where I received every courtesy at the hands of M. Moser, thewell-known manager. Lady Frances, as he informed me, had stayedthere for several weeks. She had been much liked by all who mether. Her age was not more than forty. She was still handsome andbore every sign of having in her youth been a very lovely woman.
M. Moser knew nothing of any valuable jewellery, but it hadbeen remarked by the servants that the heavy trunk in the lady’sbedroom was always scrupulously locked. Marie Devine, the maid,was as popular as her mistress. She was actually engaged to one ofthe head waiters in the hotel, and there was no difficulty in gettingher address. It was 11 Rue de Trajan, Montpellier. All this I jotteddown and felt that Holmes himself could not have been moreadroit in collecting his facts.
Only one corner still remained in the shadow. No light which Ipossessed could clear up the cause for the lady’s sudden departure.