Sherlock Holmes.

Chapter 49 Adventure History (27)
"'Ah, harsh . Miss.'

"'My accomplishments? You praise me too much, sir,' said I. 'I know a little French, a little German, a little music and painting...'

"These are not the main things, what is important is that you have the manners and manners that a well-bred lady should have. Without these basic qualities, it is impossible to educate a child who may have a great role in the history of the country in the future. The How can sir pay you a pitiful salary of less than three figures? Miss, if you are employed by me, your salary will be calculated at one hundred pounds a year.'

"You can imagine, Mr. Holmes, how unbelievable this treatment is for a man as poor as I am. The gentleman saw my suspicion, opened the wallet, and took out a bill. .

"'It's my usual practice,' said he, with his eyes narrowed in a smile, 'to give you half your salary in advance, so that you can meet your expenses and acquire a few clothes.'

"I have never seen such a generous and caring gentleman. At that time, I was still in debt to the peddler, and this advance salary was too important. But I always felt that something was wrong, so I wanted to know more about the situation. .

"'May I know where you live, sir?' I asked.

"'Hampshire, a charming country country, just five miles from Winchester. The house is quite lovely, miss, an old and beautiful country house.'

"'And what is my job, sir?'

"'Teach a little boy, he's a little rascal just turned six. Oh, you'll see him hit a cockroach with a slipper! Crack! Crack! Crack! You can't even blink an eye, and he's dead Three." He leaned back in his chair and laughed, his eyes narrowed into two slits again.

"I was amazed by the way the kid was playing, but his father's laugh made me think he was just joking.

"'And my only job is to look after a small child?'

"'No, not the only one, not the only one, my dear girl,' cried he; 'it is your business, I suppose your clever little mind can conceive, to obey some of my wife's orders, Of course, they are all a lady should obey. You see, there is nothing difficult, is it?'

"'It's an honor that I can be of use to you.'

"'Great, now let's talk about clothes. We like fashion, you know, maybe a bit of a fashion geek, but no bad heart, and if we gave you a dress to wear, you wouldn't be offended by our eccentricities, would you? ?'

"'No,' I said. But what he said did surprise me.

"'You wouldn't be unhappy if you were asked to sit here or there?'

"'Oh! Yes, no.'

"'Then we want you to cut your hair short before you go to work.'

"I can hardly believe my ears, Mr. Holmes, as you have seen. My hair is thick and chestnut in color. It is very beautiful and artistic. I dare not even think of cutting it at will. What would it be like to drop.

"I said, 'That's probably not going to work.' His small eyes kept looking at me, and as I said that, a shadow slid across his face.

"'That's perhaps the most important point,' said he, 'that my wife has a penchant for ladies, you know, madam, that a lady's penchant has to be taken into consideration. Would you rather have your hair cut? '

"'Yes, indeed I cannot, sir,' I answered.

"'Oh, well, that's all there is to it, and it's a pity you're well suited elsewhere. Then, Miss Stauber, I think I'll look at some of the other young girls.'

"The female manager has been sitting there filing papers and not saying a word to us. But she is looking at me impatiently, and I suspect that my refusal has cost her a handsome commission.

"'Would you like to keep your name on the register?' she asked me.

"'With your permission, Miss Stauber.'

"'Well! Registration doesn't seem to do much. Since you've turned down the best offer,' she said bitterly, 'don't expect us to do our best to find it for you again. Good-bye. Miss Hunter.' She pressed the bell on the platform, and a servant took me out.

"Oh, Mr. Holmes, when I got home and opened the cupboard, there was nothing to eat, and there were two or three bills on the table. I suddenly felt that I had done something stupid. After all Those who have eccentricities and expect obedience to them also pay for their eccentricities. In England it is rare to find a governess at a hundred pounds a year. Besides, my hair does me no favors. Doesn't help much. A lot of people look better with a short haircut, maybe I should cut it too. The next day, I feel even more wrong. Another day later, I'm sure I'm totally wrong I almost went to the agency to ask if the position was still available regardless of my arrogance, but at this moment I actually received a handwritten letter from that gentleman. Let me read it.

Dear Miss Hunter:
Thanks to Miss Staub, I got your address, so I am writing again to ask if you can reconsider your decision?My wife would very much like you to come, she is greatly attracted by my description of you.We will pay you thirty pounds a quarter for the trouble our little idiocy has caused you.These requirements should not be too harsh on you.My wife is partial to a very dark electric blue, she would like you to wear it around the house in the morning, you don't have to pay for it, we have one for my daughter Alize (she is now in Philadelphia, USA), I think that dress will fit you well.Another: As for sitting here or there, or having fun in the appointed way, I don't think it will cause you any inconvenience.As for the hair, I'm sorry indeed, although I thought it was very pretty when I first saw it, but I must insist that the increased salary will make up for your loss.When it comes to taking care of children, it is very easy.I hope you will come, and I will meet you at Winchester in a carriage.Please inform me which train you take.

Your faithful Geoffrey Rocheser
"Mr. Holmes, this is the letter I have just received. I have decided to accept the job. But before making a final decision, I think I should tell you what happened and ask you to advise me."

"Well, Miss Hunter, since you have already made up your mind, let's do it this way." Holmes laughed.

"Why don't you persuade me to reject him?"

"I have to admit, I wouldn't want my sister to apply for the job."

"What does that mean, Mr. Holmes?"

"Well, I have no basis. I can't say. You may have your own opinion."

"Well, I'm guessing. Rocheser looks very nice and has a pretty good temper, but his wife may be a madman. He had to put her in a mental hospital to prevent the secret from being leaked, so he tried every means to satisfy her. her quirk, to keep her from having a psychotic episode."

"That's a good explanation. There's some truth to it, and maybe it's the truth. But anyway, it's not a very nice family for a young lady."

"But, Mr. Holmes, the pay is high!"

"Well, yes, very high. That's what worries me, why are they paying you £120 a year? There must be some special reason why they can find one for forty pounds."

"I think I told you this because I hope to ask you for help in the future, and you will know what's going on. Besides, with you as my backing, I will feel more at ease."

"Oh, you can go to office just like that. I promise, your little problem may be the most interesting thing for me for months. There are some very strange phenomena in it. If you feel suspicious or encounter danger..."

"Dangerous? Do you think there is any danger?"

Shaking his head gravely, Holmes said: "If we can be sure, there is no danger. But, day or night, you only have to send a telegram and I will be at your aid at once."

"That's great," she stood up happily, the worry on her face gone. "Then I can go to Hampshire in peace. I will write to Mr. Rachael at once. I will cut my hair tonight and go to Winchester tomorrow morning." She said some words of thanks to Holmes, and then Then he got up and said goodbye.

"She's at least a young girl who knows how to protect herself," I said, when I heard her swift, firm step up the stairs.

"That's exactly what she needs," said Holmes gravely. "If I do not hear from her after many days, I shall be at fault."

My friend's words really came true not long after.For the next fortnight my mind was preoccupied with that young lady, always fearing that this lonely woman might go astray.The generous salary, peculiar conditions, and easy work all show that this matter is a bit unusual.Although I can't be sure if this is a hobby or a conspiracy, let alone whether the man is a philanthropist or a villain.As for Holmes, I have seen him sit for half an hour at a time, frowning, lost in thought.As soon as I mentioned this matter, he waved his hand to signal that we should not talk about it. "Stuff! Stuff!" he roared impatiently. "Without clay, without clay you can't make bricks!" But he said finally that he would never send his sister to that kind of work.

Late one night, we finally received the telegram.I was just going to bed when Holmes was about to do his fascinated chemistry experiments.He used to work all night on it, and usually he was hunched over a test tube or retort when I left, and he was still there when I went down to breakfast the next morning.He opened the telegram, looked at it, and handed it to me.

"Check the timetable of the train to Braishaw immediately." After speaking, he went to work on his experiment again.

The content of the telegram is as follows:

Be sure to come to the Winchester Black Swan Hotel at noon tomorrow.Do come!I'm at my wit's end.

Hunter
Holmes looked up at me and said, "Would you like to come with me?"

"of course."

"Then please look at the train timetable."

I looked up Brashaw's train timetable and said, "Once at 09:30, at Winchester at 11:30."

"Very well, then I'd better postpone my acetone analysis so that I can be at my peak energy tomorrow morning."

We successfully embarked on the journey to the old capital of England at eleven o'clock the next day.Holmes had been reading his morning paper, but when he passed through Hampshire he dropped it and took up the view.It was a fine day in spring, the sun was shining, the air was crisp, and the blue sky with white clouds was refreshing.The rolling hills in the distance surrounded the city of Edshatter, and a rural landscape gradually appeared before us, with red and gray farmhouse roofs hidden in the verdant new green.

"It's so refreshing and beautiful!" Coming here from the smoky Baker Street, I couldn't help but praise it loudly.But Holmes shook his head gravely.

"Watson, do you know? I always look at things based on my subjective mentality. This is also my character flaw. These beautiful scenery make you feel good, but they make me feel uncomfortable. Those sparse houses It gives people a sense of loneliness and isolation, and the crimes that happen there are easily hidden and unknown to outsiders."

I said, "My God! Who would have thought that crime could be associated with those beautiful old houses?"

"They have often struck me with a certain horror, Watson, as a conclusion of my experience, that the beautiful countryside is more prone to terrible crimes than even the ugliest lanes of London."

"Don't you scare me."

"However, this is an obvious truth. In the city, the pressure of public opinion is more effective than the law. In the city, no child is beaten and screams in an alley, and no drunkard is so bad that there are no neighbors." Fields of sympathy and anger. Also, the judiciary is nearby, action can be taken as soon as a charge is filed, and the criminal is just a step away from the dock. Look again at these lonely houses, built on their own fields, Inhabited by ignorant villagers, few of whom know the law. These places are a place of yearly violence and hidden crimes, which are mostly unknown. If Miss Hunter lives in Winchester, she need not be too worried, But the danger is that she lives in the country five miles away. However, it is certain that she is not in any danger at present."

"The fact that she came to meet us at Winchester means she can get away with it."

"Yes, she has personal freedom."

"Do you have any opinion on the matter?"

"I've imagined seven different explanations, each of which applies to the facts as we know them so far. I'll know which one is correct just by knowing the new information that awaits us. Well, there It's the church, and we'll see Miss Hunter in a moment, and she'll tell us all."

The Black Swan Hotel is a famous inn on this avenue, not far from the train station.Young Ms. Hunter was waiting for us there.She had a room reserved and our lunch was set on the table.

She said enthusiastically: "I'm so glad you came, thank you! I don't know how to be grateful. I really don't know what to do now, I can only listen to your suggestions."

"Tell us, please, what happened?"

"Okay, I must speak quickly, because I promised Mr. Rocheser to be back by three o'clock. I asked for leave this morning, and he didn't know what I came to town for."

"Tell me one by one!" Holmes stretched out his long, thin legs to the fire, ready to hear her account.

"First of all, I have not been abused by the Rochessers in general, which is fair to them. But I can't understand them, and I have a lot of doubts about them in my heart."

"What can't you understand them?"

"Can't understand their justification for their actions. You can read everything behind what happened. When I first came here, Mr. Rocheser took me in his one-horse carriage to the purple beech forest. Like he said Well, the surroundings are beautiful, but the house is not beautiful. It is a large, boxy house, painted white, but the damp weather has eroded it into spots and stains. It has some clearings around it, surrounded by trees on three On one side is a sloping field leading to the Southampton Highway. The road is about a hundred yards from the house. The open space in front of the house belongs to the house, but the surrounding woods are part of Lord Satherton's land. The hall of the house is directly opposite A clump of purple-leaved beech grew, so the place was named the purple-leaved beech forest.

"My employer was as pleasant as ever. He drove me home and introduced me to his wife and children in the evening. Mr. Holmes, our speculation at your house in Baker Street was incorrect. Mrs. Rachael was not a madman, but She was a quiet woman. She had a very pale complexion, and was many years younger than her husband. I guess she was under thirty, and her husband was no less than forty-five. I learned from their conversation that they had been married about seven years. He was a widower, had a child by a previous wife, and now went to Philadelphia, USA. Mr. Rocheser told me privately that his daughter left because she resented living with her father's young wife.

"Mrs. Rachael made neither good nor bad impression on me, either in heart or in appearance. She was an insignificant, ordinary person. It was not difficult to see that she loved her with all her heart." Sir and son. Her pale gray eyes were constantly looking around, and whenever she sensed a need in them, she would immediately try to meet it. He was also good to her, but in a reckless way. All in all, they were a loving couple. But this lady seems to have some secrets and melancholy. She is often lost in thought with a sad face. I found her inadvertently crying several times. I think she must be sad because of that naughty child. I have never seen such Spoiled child. He has a big head, a bad temper, and is not tall for his age. He has wild fits all day long, or sullenly tense face. Violence to weak animals is his only thing. He has shown great ingenuity in catching mice, birds, and insects. But I will leave him alone, Mr. Holmes, because he has very little to do with my business."

"I'd love to hear any detail you have, whether you think it's relevant or not," said my friend.

"I tried not to miss any important link. The appearance and behavior of the servants in the house also displeased me--there were only two servants in the house, a man and a woman. Gray hair and beard. He was always drunk, and a few times when I was with them, I found him very drunk, but Mr. Rachael didn't seem to notice, and didn't care at all. His wife was long Tall and strong, as silent as Mrs. Rachaiser, but not as kind. They are the most annoying husband and wife. However, I am lucky to spend most of the time in the nursery or my own room. are connected, all on the same corner of the house.

"The first two days after my arrival in the purple beech forest were quiet. On the third day, after breakfast, Mrs. Rachaiser went downstairs and whispered something to her husband.

"'Oh, yes,' he turned, 'Miss Hunter, we thank you for cutting your hair short for our inclination. I'm sure it didn't spoil your looks in the slightest. Now, we want to know Does this iron blue dress suit you well. It is on the bed in your room, and we would be most grateful if you would wear it.'

(End of this chapter)