The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 53 Four Signatures (37)
"Again I heard from Frank that he was in Montana and then prospecting in Arizona. Then I heard he was in New Mexico. After that there was a long story in the papers about how a miner's camp was Arizona Indian attack, my Frank's name was on the list of dead. I passed out after reading it. Then I was bedridden for months, very sick. Dad thought I had consumptive disease, took me to Went to about half of the doctors in San Francisco. Over a year, no news, so I decided that Frank really wasn't coming back, he died. Later, Lord San Simeon went to San Francisco, and I followed him to London , the marriage has been confirmed, and Dad is very happy. But in the depths of my consciousness, my heart already belongs to poor Frank, and there is no other man who can take his place in my heart.

"That being said, if I marry Lord San Simeon, I will definitely fulfill my duty as a wife. Love cannot be forced, but behavior is possible. When I walked towards the temple of marriage with him , all I was thinking was to do my best to be a good wife. But you understand how I felt at the time. As I walked up to the altar, I glanced back and suddenly I saw Frank, standing The first row of seats looked at me. At first I thought it was his soul coming back, but when I looked there again, he was still there, with puzzled eyes, as if asking me, what do I see? I wondered whether he was happy or sad. I was surprised that I didn't pass out immediately. I just felt the world spinning and the pastor's words were in my ears, like bees buzzing. I should terminate this wedding ceremony , and then make a scene in the church? I looked at him again, and it seemed that he knew what I was thinking, because he put his finger to his lips and told me to keep quiet. Then, I saw him in the A piece of paper was written quickly, and I knew it was his message to me. When I passed by his row of seats, I deliberately dropped the bouquet in my hand on the ground, and he picked it up for me, and then secretly I stuffed the note into my hand without hesitation. There was only one line on the paper, asking me to follow him when he gave the signal. Of course, I would do exactly what he wanted.

"When I got back to the apartment, I told my maid about it. She knew him back in California, and they got on really well. I told her to pack some things for me and get my long hair ready. coat, and I can't talk about it with anyone. I understand that I should have explained it to Lord Saint-Simon, but in front of his mother and those noble people, I really can't speak, so I have to I secretly made up my mind to leave without saying goodbye, and I will explain later when I find a chance. I hadn’t sat down at the table for 10 minutes, and through the window, I saw Frank appear on the other side of the street. He waved to me, and then dodged into the park. When I was dressed I stole out, and was about to overtake him, when a woman stopped me and told me many gossips about Lord Saint-Simon, and from what I learned from her, it seemed that before his marriage, He had some little secrets of his own too, but I managed to get away and caught up with Frank in a short while. We got into a cab and headed to his place in Gordon Square. After waiting so long, I In Arizona, Frank was imprisoned by the Indians, and he escaped from there, and made the hard way to San Francisco. He learned that I thought he was dead, and that I was in England. He chased Got there and eventually found me the morning of my second wedding."

"I learned about it from the newspaper," said the American. "It has the name of the wedding church on it, but it doesn't say where the woman lives."

"Then we negotiated a solution, and Frank meant full disclosure. But I'm terribly ashamed of it all, and I'd rather just disappear without a trace and never see anyone in it - leave a note to Dad , just tell him I'm alive. As soon as I think of those lords and rich people waiting for me at the table, my heart is in turmoil. So Frank put my marriage The dress was bundled up with other things in a bundle, and thrown away where no one could find it. We might be in Paris to-morrow if this good Mr. Holmes had not come to find us. how we got our address, but he told us a lot, kindly and clearly, and pointed out that I was wrong and Frank was right, and that we made a big mistake in hiding it for fear of being known. Then He said he could offer us a private meeting with Lord San Simeon, so here we go right away. Well, Robert, now you know all about it. If I hurt you, I'll do it to you Say sorry. I hope you don't think I'm a mean person."

Lord San Simeon was still stiff, showing no sign of relaxing, frowning and pursing his mouth, listening to the long story.

"Sorry," he said, "I'm not used to speaking publicly about my personal affairs."

"So you still won't forgive me? Can't you shake my hand before I go?"

"Oh, of course, if it makes you happy." He reached out and shook her coldly.

"I had hoped that you would dine with us," said Holmes.

"I think you are asking too much," replied the lord. "I may be compelled to accept these recent events, but you do not expect me to be happy. If you will, I would now like to wish you all good night. ’ He bowed to everyone and strode out of the room.

Holmes said: "Well, I think you should give me this face. What a pleasure it is to meet an American friend! Mr. Moulton, many people including me will believe that many years ago The wrong behavior of a monarch and the stupidity of a minister will not prevent our future generations from one day becoming citizens of this same great country including the world, and this land is flying with stars and stripes. Flags together constitute a national flag."

"This case is indeed very interesting," said Holmes after our guests had left, "because it clearly shows how incomprehensible a matter is at first, but how easy and natural it is to explain afterwards. The things that the lady tells are more natural than any sequence of events. But there are others, like Mr. Lestrade, from whose point of view nothing ends like this It's even more incredible."

"So, from the very beginning, have you never taken a detour?"

"At first, two things seemed clear to me. One was that the lady herself was looking forward to the wedding, and the other was that within a few minutes of her coming home, she backed down. Obviously, something must have happened in the morning to make her change her mind. What happened? After going out, because the groom was always by her side, she had no chance to talk to other people. Did she Any acquaintances? If there were, they must have come from America. She had not been in England long, and it was unlikely that anyone would have made such a deep impression on her that she could have just seen her Completely changed my mind. You see, after some screening, we came to the conclusion that she probably saw an American. But who is this American? Why did he treat her Had such a huge impact? Maybe it was her lover, maybe it was her husband. I knew that she grew up in a difficult and special environment when she was young. When he told us about those Situation: There was a man in the front seat; seeing him, the bride's attitude changed noticeably; she deliberately dropped her bouquet to get in touch with the note; she asked her caring maid Help and the reference to encroachment—miner's slang for taking possession of mining rights that someone else owns—the whole thing became clear with such a deep hint. She left, with a If a man leaves, then this man is either her lover or her ex-husband, and the latter is more likely."

"How did you find them?"

"Originally, the chance of finding it is almost zero, but in the hands of Brother Lestrade, there are some pieces of information that he himself does not understand. It is true that the initials of those names are the most important, but they are more important than others. What's more valuable is that I know what he spent in the most exclusive hotels in London in the past week."

"On what basis do you deduce that it is the highest?"

"According to the price list, it is so expensive: 8 shillings a bed, 8 pence a glass of wine, it can be seen that it is an ultra-luxury hotel. In London, hotels that charge such a high price are rare. In Northumberland Street, the second hotel I found, I found, by consulting the registers, an American gentleman, Frank Hay Moulton, who had left just the day before. After examining his bill I just happened to find the accounts I had seen on the carbon receipts. The American gentleman left a message requesting that his letters be sent to 226 Gordon Square. So I went there, luckily, The lovers happened to be at home. I take the liberty of giving them some advice as elders. I suggest that, from every point of view, they should express their situation more clearly to the public, and especially to Lord St. Simeon. Understand, more clearly. I made this meeting happen, and, as you can see, I got him to keep the appointment."

I said: "But the ending is not very ideal, his behavior is not generous enough."

Holmes smiled and said: "Watson, if it were you, after a series of troublesome things such as marriage proposal and marriage, you found that your wife and wealth suddenly disappeared, I'm afraid you would not be generous. I think we should be lenient with Lord Saint-Simon, and pray to God that I shall not be like him some day in the future. Please move your chair forward and hand over the violin Give it to me. The only problem I need to solve now is how to get through the remaining dreary autumn nights."

Copper Beech Case

Sherlock Holmes, throwing aside the Telegraph ad page, said: "An artist with a pure purpose always derives the greatest pleasure from the most ordinary and least important images. I am delighted, Watson. See, this has been proved by your conscientious record of our cases. And, I am sure, sometimes you have made artistic processing. What you highlight is not the important cases themselves, but the Turned to seemingly trivial cases. But they have room for reasoning and logical thinking, which I included in my special field of study."

I smiled and said, "I can't quite get rid of hyperbole, however."

"Perhaps you did have some little fault," he said as he picked up red-hot cinders with tongs and lit his cherrywood pipe, which he would use instead of thinking when he turned to arguing about an issue. Tao Zhi, "Your mistake may be that you want to make the things you describe too vivid and interesting, instead of being limited to the reasoning of the causal relationship of things--in fact, this is the only thing that needs to be paid attention to when judging things place."

"As for that, I think I've done it fairly." My tone became a little colder, and I found my friend's character to be very selfish, which disgusted me, and this It's not the first time either.

"No, I'm not the egotistical type," he replied, addressing my thoughts rather than me, as usual, "I try to do justice to my skill and craft , the reason is that it should not be personal - something that cannot be mine alone. Crime is commonplace, but logic is rare. So you should focus on the account of logic, not The crime itself. But you've reduced what should have been a blueprint for a course case to a series of interesting stories."

It's cold outside, it's an early spring morning.After breakfast we sat face to face by the fire in the old house in Baker Street.Thick fog came in, filling the dark brown houses.The opposite window became vaguely visible in the deep yellow fog.We lighted a gas lamp, and its light fell on the white tablecloth, and the china vases and metal utensils glowed faintly as the tableware had not been removed.Holmes spent the whole morning flipping through the advertisement columns of various newspapers without saying a word. Finally, he gave up and began to educate me on my writing as if with emotion.

"At the same time," he went on, after a pause, smoking his long pipe, and staring at the fire, "no one can blame you for the alarmist style of writing, there are very few cases in which you have taken a keen interest. Much of it does not fall under the law. The little incident with the King of Bohemia, the strange experience of Lady Mary Sutherland, the problem of the man with the crooked mouth, the affair of the noble bachelor, they all belong to the law Things out of scope. You try to avoid sensationalism, but my concern is that your account may be too cumbersome."

I replied: "Maybe the result is as you said, but the method I used is novel and interesting."

"My friend, most people who are not good observers of life will never tell from a man's teeth whether he is a weaver or from his left thumb. Was he a typographer? They don't care what the finer difference between analysis and reasoning is! But I don't blame you if you write too much, because the time for big cases is over A man, or at least a criminal, is no longer as adventurous and innovative as he used to be. My own small business seems to have degenerated into an agency, dealing with nothing more than Finding someone's lost pencil, or advising young girls at boarding school. I don't think my career will ever be the same again, anyway. I got a note this morning , I think it just marks the lowest point of my career. You read it!" He handed me a wrinkled letter.

It arrived from Montag Chiles the night before, and reads as follows:
Dear Mr. Holmes:
I am eager to see you, and would like your help in analyzing the question of whether I should accept my offer as governess.If it is convenient, I will visit you tomorrow at 10:30.

Yours faithfully Violet Hunter
"Do you know this young lady?"

"I don't know."

"It's already 10:30."

"Yes, I'm sure it was her ringing the doorbell."

"This matter may be more interesting than you imagined. Remember that the sapphire incident at the beginning seemed to be a whim, but it developed into a serious investigation in the future. Maybe this is also the case."

"Oh, I hope. Our doubts will soon be resolved, and if I guess correctly, the client is here."

While speaking, the door opened and a young lady walked in.Her clothes are simple and plain, but very neat, and she is very intelligent from the face, and there are some freckles on her face.Her movements are quick, like a woman with a good sense of society.

"I trust you will forgive my interruption," said she, when my friend rose to receive her, "a very curious thing has happened to me, and since I have no parents or other relatives to consult with, I would like to You should show me what to do."

"Please sit down, Miss Hunter, I am honored, and I will serve you wholeheartedly."

I could see that Holmes had a favorable impression of his client. He looked her up and down inquisitively, and then settled down, with his eyes downcast and his fingertips pressed together, to listen to her account of the incident.

(End of this chapter)