📝 您未登录，登录后完成练习可保存成绩、查看最佳记录。
总字符
0
正确字符
0
错误字符
0
错误率
0.00%
耗时(秒)
0
速度 WPM
0
0 / 68
1"To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of The
2Daily Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be
3derived. It is pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped this truth that in these little records
4of our cases which you have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, occasionally to embellish, you have
5given prominence not so much to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I have figured but rather to
6those incidents which may have been trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those faculties of deduction
7and of logical synthesis which I have made my special province." "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself
8absolved from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my records." "You have erred, perhaps," he
9observed, taking up a glowing cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood pipe which was wont to
10replace his clay when he was in a disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred perhaps in attempting to
11put colour and life into each of your statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing upon record that
12severe reasoning from cause to effect which is really the only notable feature about the thing." "It seems to me that I
13have done you full justice in the matter," I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism which I had
14more than once observed to be a strong factor in my friend's singular character. "No, it is not selfishness or conceit,"
15said he, answering, as was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full justice for my art, it is
16because it is an impersonal thing--a thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic
17rather than upon the crime that you should dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a
18series of tales." It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after breakfast on either side of a cheery fire
19in the old room at Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of dun-coloured houses, and the opposing
20windows loomed like dark, shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit and shone on the white cloth
21and glimmer of china and metal, for the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been silent all the morning,
22dipping continuously into the advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, having apparently given up
23his search, he had emerged in no very sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "At the same time," he
24remarked after a pause, during which he had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "you can hardly
25be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself in, a
26fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the
27King of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the problem connected with the man with the twisted
28lip, and the incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the
29sensational, I fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods
30I hold to have been novel and of interest." "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant public,
31who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of analysis
32and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at
33least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating
34into an agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I
35have touched bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a
36crumpled letter across to me. It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and ran thus: "DEAR MR.
37HOLMES,--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered
38to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, "VIOLET
39HUNTER." "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. "Not I." "It is half-past ten now." "Yes, and I have no doubt that is
40her ring." "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle,
41which appeared to be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. It may be so in this case, also."
42"Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in
43question." As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a
44bright, quick face, freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a woman who has had her own way to make
45in the world. "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my companion rose to greet her, "but I have
46had a very strange experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort from whom I could ask advice, I thought
47that perhaps you would be kind enough to tell me what I should do." "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to
48do anything that I can to serve you." I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner and speech of his
49new client. He looked her over in his searching fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and his
50finger-tips together, to listen to her story. "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the family of
51Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his
52children over to America with him, so that I found myself without a situation. I advertised, and I answered
53advertisements, but without success. At last the little money which I had saved began to run short, and I was at my
54wit's end as to what I should do. "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End called Westaway's, and
55there I used to call about once a week in order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. Westaway was
56the name of the founder of the business, but it is really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, and
57the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her
58ledgers and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the
59little office as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face
60and a great heavy chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at her elbow with a pair of glasses on
61his nose, looking very earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a jump in his chair and turned
62quickly to Miss Stoper. "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. Capital! capital!' He seemed
63quite enthusiastic and rubbed his hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a comfortable-looking man that
64it was quite a pleasure to look at him. "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. "'Yes, sir.' "'As
65governess?' "'Yes, sir.' "'And what salary do you ask?' "'I had £ 4 a month in my last place with Colonel Spence Munro.'
66"'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a
67boiling passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with such attractions and accomplishments?' "'My
68accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--'
🎉 全部完成！共 68 行