صفحة 331 من 657

He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective

fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less

suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there

are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others

which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That

the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the

face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the

last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He

had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a

moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his

fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink,

at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that

his wife has ceased to love him."

"My dear Holmes!"