"Doyle, Arthur Conan - Disappearance Of Lady Frances Carfax" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doyle Arthur Conan)

before his departure.

"By the way," said the landlord in conclusion, "you are not the
only friend of Lady Frances Carfax who is inquiring after her
just now. Only a week or so ago we had a man here upon the same
errand."

"Did he give a name?" I asked.

"None; but he was an Englishman, though of an unusual type."

"A savage?" said I, linking my facts after the fashion of my
illustrious friend.

"Exactly. That describes him very well. He is a bulky, bearded,
sunburned fellow, who looks as if he would be more at home in a
farmers' inn than in a fashionable hotel. A hard, fierce man, I
should think, and one whom I should be sorry to offend."

Already the mystery began to define itself, as figures grow
clearer with the lifting of a fog. Here was this good and pious
lady pursued from place to place by a sinister and unrelenting
figure. She feared him, or she would not have fled from
Lausanne. He had still followed. Sooner or later he would
overtake her. Had he already overtaken her? Was THAT the secret
of her continued silence? Could the good people who were her
companions not screen her from his violence or his blackmail?
What horrible purpose, what deep design, lay behind this long
pursuit? There was the problem which I had to solve.

To Holmes I wrote showing how rapidly and surely I had got down
to the roots of the matter. In reply I had a telegram asking for
a description of Dr. Shlessinger's left ear. Holmes's ideas of
humour are strange and occasionally offensive, so I took no
notice of his ill-timed jest--indeed, I had already reached
Montpellier in my pursuit of the maid, Marie, before his message
came.

I had no difficulty in finding the ex-servant and in learning all
that she could tell me. She was a devoted creature, who had only
left her mistress because she was sure that she was in good
hands, and because her own approaching marriage made a separation
inevitable in any case. Her mistress had, as she confessed with
distress, shown some irritability of temper towards her during
their stay in Baden, and had even questioned her once as if she
had suspicions of her honesty, and this had made the parting
easier than it would otherwise have been. Lady Frances had given
her fifty pounds as a wedding-present. Like me, Marie viewed
with deep distrust the stranger who had driven her mistress from
Lausanne. With her own eyes she had seen him seize the lady's