 Our blinds were half-drawn, and Holmes lay curled upon the sofa, reading and re-reading a letter which he had received by the morning post.  For myself, my term of service in India had trained me to stand heat better than cold, and a thermometer at ninety was no hardship.  But the morning paper was uninteresting.  Parliament had risen. Everybody was out of town, and I yearned for the glades of the New Forest or the shingle of Southsea