“And have you any on hand just now?” I asked with interest.


“Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of interest. They

are important, you understand, without being interesting. Indeed, I have found

that it is usually in unimportant matters that there is a field for the

observation, and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the

charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the

bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive. In these cases,

save for one rather intricate matter which has been referred to me from

Marseilles, there is nothing which presents any features of interest. It is

possible, however, that I may have something better before very many minutes

are over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken.”


He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted blinds gazing

down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. Looking over his shoulder, I

saw that on the pavement opposite there stood a large woman with a heavy fur

boa round her neck, and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat

which was tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her ear.

From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, hesitating fashion at

our windows, while her body oscillated backward and forward, and her fingers

fidgeted with her glove buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who

leaves the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp clang of

the bell.


“I have seen those symptoms before,” said Holmes, throwing his

cigarette into the fire. “Oscillation upon the pavement always means an

affaire de cœur. She would like advice, but is not sure that the matter

is not too delicate for communication. And yet even here we may discriminate.

When a woman has been seriously wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and

the usual symptom is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a