"
She looked back at us from the door, and I had a last impression
of that beautiful haunted face, the startled eyes, and the drawn
mouth. Then she was gone.
"Now, Watson, the fair sex is your department," said Holmes,
with a smile, when the dwindling frou-frou of skirts had ended
in the slam of the front door. "What was the fair lady's game?
What did she really want?"
"Surely her own statement is clear and her anxiety very natural."
"Hum! Think of her appearance, Watson -- her manner,
her suppressed excitement, her restlessness, her tenacity
in asking questions. Remember that she comes of a caste
who do not lightly show emotion."
"She was certainly much moved."
"Remember also the curious earnestness with which she assured
us that it was best for her husband that she should know all.
What did she mean by that? And you must have observed, Watson,
how she manoeuvred to have the light at her back. She did not
wish us to read her expression."
"Yes; she chose the one chair in the room."
"And yet the motives of women are so inscrutable. You remember
the woman at Margate whom I suspected for the same reason.
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