Consulting In Rooms He Has Not Entered
The second letter, if I may so describe what was in fact the first useful one, did not come within the week, as Holmes had predicted, but within three days. It arrived, again, by no means the Post Office recognises. Mrs. Hudson found it, this time, upon the umbrella-stand, propped against the handle of Holmes's old silk hat, which he had not worn since his return and which I suspect she kept there partly as a decoration and partly as a reproach. She brought it up with her lips pressed rather tightly together.
"Mr. Holmes," she said, "I have been in the kitchen or the hall continuously since five o'clock. The street door was bolted on the inside from seven. No one has rung. No one has come down the area steps. I should take it as a kindness, sir, if you could tell me how that letter came to be where I found it."
Holmes bowed to her, in the old courtly way he reserved for persons whom he thought it important not to lose.
"Mrs. Hudson," he said, "I cannot tell you, because I do not know. I shall know presently. When I do, you shall be the first after Dr. Watson to be told, provided only that I judge the knowledge to be a comfort rather than a torment to you. Will that do?"
"It must do, sir, if it is the best you can offer," said Mrs. Hudson; and went out, not quite reassured, but, I thought, not quite afraid either. Holmes had a peculiar gift for retaining the loyalty of those