it was in the summer of ’89, not long after my marriage, that the events occurred which i am now about to summarise. i had returned to civil practice and had finally abandoned holmes in his baker street rooms, although i continually visited him and occasionally even persuaded him to forgo his bohemian habits so far as to come and visit us. my practice had steadily increased, and as i happened to live at no very great distance from paddington station, i got a few patients from among the officials. one of these, whom i had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence.