

Transcribed from the 1899 Grant Richards edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

                          [Picture: Book cover]





                                  A DUET
                        WITH AN OCCASIONAL CHORUS


                                    BY

                              A. CONAN DOYLE

                      [Picture: Decorative graphic]

                                * * * * *

                                  LONDON

                              GRANT RICHARDS

                            9 HENRIETTA STREET

                                   1899

                                * * * * *

          Edinburgh: T. and A CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty

                                * * * * *

                                    TO
                            MRS. MAUDE CROSSE

DEAR MAUDE,—All the little two-oared boats which put out into the great
ocean have need of some chart which will show them how to lay their
course.  Each starts full of happiness and confidence, and yet we know
how many founder, for it is no easy voyage, and there are rocks and
sandbanks upon the way.  So I give a few pages of your own private log,
which tell of days of peace, and days of storm—such storms as seem very
petty from the deck of a high ship, but are serious for the two-oared
boats.  If your peace should help another to peace, or your storm console
another who is storm-tossed, then I know that you will feel repaid for
this intrusion upon your privacy.  May all your voyage be like the
outset, and when at last the oars fall from your hands, and those of
Frank, may other loving ones be ready to take their turn of toil—and so,
_bon voyage_!

                            Ever your friend,

                                                               THE AUTHOR.

_Jan._ 20, 1899.




CONTENTS

                                   PAGE
THE OVERTURE                          1
THE OVERTURE CONTINUED                9
THE OVERTURE CONCLUDED               24
THE TWO SOLOS                        34
IN BRITAIN’S VALHALLA                48
TWO SOLOS AND A DUET                 71
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES               88
THE HOME-COMING                     100
LAYING A COURSE                     112
CONFESSIONS                         128
CONCERNING MRS. BEETON              146
MR. SAMUEL PEPYS                    158
A VISIT TO MR. SAMUEL PEPYS         170
TROUBLE                             185
A RESCUE                            204
THE BROWNING SOCIETY                218
AN INVESTMENT                       236
A THUNDERCLOUD                      251
DANGER                              269
NO. 5 CHEYNE ROW                    290
THE LAST NOTE OF THE DUET           311
THE TRIO                            326




THE OVERTURE
I
ABOUT THAT DATE


THESE are the beginnings of some of the letters which they wrote about
that time.

                                                   _Woking_, _May_ 20_th_.

MY DEAREST MAUDE,—You know that your mother suggested, and we agreed,
that we should be married about the beginning of September.  Don’t you
think that we might say the 3rd of August?  It is a Wednesday, and in
every sense suitable.  Do try to change the date, for it would in many
ways be preferable to the other.  I shall be eager to hear from you about
it.  And now, dearest Maude... (The rest is irrelevant.)

                                               _St. Albans_, _May_ 22_nd_.

My Dearest Frank,—Mother sees no objection to the 3rd of August, and I am
ready to do anything which will please you and her.  Of course there are
the guests to be considered, and the dressmakers and other arrangements,
but I have no doubt that we shall be able to change the date all right.
O Frank... (What follows is beside the point.)

                                                   _Woking_, _May_ 25_th_.

MY DEAREST MAUDE,—I have been thinking over that change of date, and I
see one objection which had not occurred to me when I suggested it.
August the 1st is Bank holiday, and travelling is not very pleasant about
that time.  My idea now is that we should bring it off before that date.
Fancy, for example, how unpleasant it would be for your Uncle Joseph if
he had to travel all the way from Edinburgh with a Bank-holiday crowd.
It would be selfish of us if we did not fit in our plans so as to save
our relatives from inconvenience.  I think therefore, taking everything
into consideration, that the 20th of July