The Oriental Casebook of Sherlock Holmes Read Online Free PDF Page A

Rissington. Her name before her marriage to Reginald was Jennifer Hume. Her father, Jeremy Hume, had moved early in his life from Scotland to England, where he met and married her mother. He was a successful barrister, and she was raised with her younger sister in comfort and peace in the English countryside. Their life had all the outward trappings of familial happiness and was for the most part uneventful.
    “My father loved us,” she said, “but was morose and rather strict at times, our mother understanding and patient. When I reached sixteen, my parents began to talk vaguely of my eventual marriage to the right person, but I made it clear to them that I would choose my husband myself, if I were to have one at all. My father, interested only in a good social arrangement that would be a match for his financial success, made it evident that he would certainly have a major say in my marriage. There were a few scenes, as I am sure occur in many households, and there matters rested, for I was far too young for immediate worry.”
    A year later, however, she met a young man who took her heart. His name was James Hamilton. He lived with his mother in the next village. He had no known father, and his mother took in laundry and did other menial jobs to support herself. There had been rude jokes also, passed back and forth in conversation, about old Rose Hamilton, but they were beyond her comprehension. She had never met her son before, who was judged to be one of the handsomest lads in the region.
    “One morning, I had gone to the fields not far from our house to pick wildflowers. I was standing near the road among the flowers when I became aware that someone was watching me. I turned and for the first time saw James and fell in love. He was tall, of slender build, with a beautiful open face, but what stole my heart, Mr. Holmes, was his smile and the clear earnest look in his eyes. We talked embarassedly that day for a few minutes, as young people will do. He asked me if he could help me pick and I said yes. He then accompanied me to the gate of our house and politely bade me good-bye. That evening I could not eat at supper, nor could I sleep for thinking of him and going over in my mind everything that we had said to each other that day.”
    The next morning at the same time she went out again to pick the wildflowers. He was there. It was apparent that he liked her company as well. Soon they were talking and laughing. Every day they met thus, sometimes a little farther off, without anyone the wiser.
    “In a few weeks, even though I blush as I tell you, Mr. Holmes, our young love began to deepen into the inevitable passion to which we mortals are subject. I took my sister into my confidence and she loyally protected us from intrusion during our trysts. For several months, I was happy in the sweetest love that any woman has ever known on the face of this earth. My darling James became to me my very life.”
    Then one day her father discovered them. He made a terrible scene in which he heaped upon her beloved James every filthy insult with regard to blood and origin our English tongue provides. She tried to make him desist, scratching at him and giving him blows. Her poor James stood in a stunned silence until her father’s fury had run its course. Then James looked at her with the saddest face she have ever seen, turned and walked proudly away. She tried to stop him, but he asked her to let him go, saying that he would write to her.
    “As he walked away I felt my heart sink and I believe I fainted. I remembered nothing of how I arrived home. I awoke in bed, my mother sitting by my side anxiously. It was already the next morning. James had indeed sent me a note through my sister, who had given it to my mother for me so that my father might not see it. It read:
My dearest love Jenny,
Please know that I love you with all my heart and always will, but your father’s insults have deeply wounded me, and I am determined to seek out