The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Admiration Quotes Page 2
Citations follow this format: (Story.Paragraph)
| Quote #4 "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce that the gas is not laid on in his house?" |
This section of deduction belongs to a long chain in which Holmes also reasons that the poor owner of this hat has lost the love of his wife. Besides being a pretty amazing performance of the kind of deductive reasoning Holmes so adores, this scene is also interesting for Watson's frequent expressions of amazement and disbelief. He's basically egging Holmes on, giving him a plot-based reason for why he would be talking through the identity of the owner of an old hat in such detail: Holmes does this because Watson wants him to, because he asks Holmes, "how on earth do you deduce?"
| Quote #5 "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." |
This scene takes place when Holmes first meets Helen Stoner, the extremely fragile heroine of "The Speckled Band." Her physical expression of surprise at Holmes's deductions helps emphasize how unusual he is. But it also gives the scene a material, realistic quality that Conan Doyle seems to be striving for all the time in these stories.
