[Comprehensive Classics] Detective Mary

The sudden return of Sherlock Holmes not only surprised Irene and Mary, but the detective himself was in a hurry.

Not to mention anything else, at least you can change the miner's clothes before boarding the train.Mr. Holmes's dusty attire last night made Mary very suspicious that he had just left the mine with other workers, and then went straight to the train station to buy a ticket to Paris.

Fortunately, even if he came back directly, Holmes stored some of his luggage in a certain hotel in Paris.When we met again the next day, Sherlock Holmes had left Ms. Irene Adler's property and had put on his standard British gentleman's attire.

I have to admit that even though the detective and Professor Moriarty have completely different standpoints, the way they act is more or less like old enemies: Even in Paris, the fashion capital, the two men from England still insist on their own dressing style , not at all moved by French fashion and trends.

Sherlock, who temporarily put on Eric's clothes last night, certainly has a unique style, but Mary always finds it weird.Sherlock Holmes is still the most handsome in carrying a cane and wearing an English suit.

"Mr. Poirot is still on vacation in Paris," Marie suggested. "How about going to visit him today?"

"Just send a message," said Holmes. "If there is a need to meet, Poirot will come to see me. There is no need to waste time on meaningless social interactions."

"..."

It's okay to compare who is bigger.Mary laughed out loud, and now she somewhat understood Ms. Agatha Christie's mood—clearly she was also Sir Conan Doyle's number one fan, but Grandma didn't have Mr. Poirot to meet Holmes.

Before time-traveling, Mary was particularly looking forward to the picture of a strong alliance, but after time-traveling, she became an author herself. Mary thought that she would not be happy to have Philip Luther and Sherlock Holmes in the same frame.

Leaving aside the question of peers, if we jointly investigate a case, the question of "who is strong and who is weak" will inevitably arise.Although Sherlock Holmes is Mary's favorite image of a detective, she is also reluctant to let her own son surrender.

Regardless of the author's considerations, if we only look at the "character relationship", Holmes' own sentence is enough to explain everything without wasting time.

He and Mr. Hercule Poirot are indeed good friends who have known each other since childhood, and they understand and agree with each other.However, because of this, the two should devote their time and opportunities to more important things.We will meet when we have to meet, and there is no need to meet specially to connect with each other.

This is probably the mode of friendship between smart people.

So Mary stopped talking, and she glanced at Holmes' attire again: "But you do plan to go out to visit others, don't you?"

Under normal circumstances, Holmes would not have carried his cane and put on his hat if he had not gone out on purpose.After cooperating in the investigation of the case in London for so long, Mary also summed up the rule: if she goes to track down clues, Holmes is more inclined to cross-dress or wear dark clothes.

And he is wearing a beige coat today, which is enough to prove that Holmes today does not intend to step into the mud or go straight to the underground sewer-this is a habit developed in London, because Mrs. Hudson will go crazy if his clothes are soiled.

"Yes."

Holmes nodded. "A worker at Montsouux entrusted me to visit his mother in Paris."

Mary: "Do you want me to go with you?"

Holmes: "If you have no other plans, yes."

In other words, the mother is not a person involved in the case, and it doesn't matter whether Mary comes or not.

She had nothing to do, and Mary didn't want to waste time in Irene's apartment, so she readily offered an invitation to go with her: "Please wait a moment, I'll change into something more convenient."

The worker's mother naturally wouldn't work and live in a place where Mary frequented.

Holmes called a cab, and they came to the Golddrop Road.Marie follows the detective and accompanies him in his search for a laundress named Jervis Makar.

The environment in which the laundress lives is no different from that of Whitechapel in London.The woman who came out had a haggard look and a thin figure that the poor often had. Her hands were soaked and almost turned white. When she saw Holmes and Mary, who were clean and well-dressed, her eyes that were cloudy due to years of drinking showed surprise. color.

"Sir, miss," she said, "what do you want?"

If you look carefully, this laundryman should be a beauty when he was young, but time and poverty are so cruel.Marie thinks it was over-birth and alcohol that ruined her.

Holmes said calmly, "I am a friend of Etienne, madam."

The laundryman laughed dryly: "Etienne still has friends in tuxedos?"

Holmes did not go out in a tailcoat, and the remark was meant to be ironic.But the detective didn't care what the other party said. After getting a response, he continued: "Your son asked me to send you a message. He has recently worked in the mine in Mengsu, and his salary has been greatly reduced. There's going on a strike, it's going to be tough, and you can't send money like you used to."

"No wonder there has been no news in the past few months."

The laundryman shook his head: "Strike, what's the use of a strike. It's not the bosses and managers who starve to death if they don't go back to work."

Mary frowned slightly.

What is the use of a strike?As the worker's mother said, the bourgeois does not starve without income, but the worker does.However, there are still countless strikes recorded in history until the 21st century.Mary knew it was incomprehensible to some people—the bourgeois felt that the workers had already been paid, which was vexatious; act of protest.

Mary just felt helpless and sad.

Holmes: "That's all Étienne has said, madam."

"If you are kind, my lord," said the laundress, "if you are friends with Étienne, you should see more of his mother."

When Mary was about to ask the lady what help she needed, Holmes directly raised the cane: "If possible, Madam, please consider the possibility of quitting drinking."

Mary: "..."

At that moment, she immediately swallowed back the words she was about to say.

Although Mary herself also lived a life without food once the shift was stopped, her situation was much better than that of the poor.Logically speaking, a handout of a few pounds would be enough for a laundress to buy extra meat for nutrition—after all, in Mary's opinion, the lady was already emaciated and almost morbid.

But Mr. Holmes's abstinence point woke her up.

Not everyone expects to live a better life. Rather than struggle, more people choose to sink when they are desperate.Mary could have handed over enough pounds to the lady on the spot, but she would have exchanged them for alcohol in a second.

Her son strikes out in Montsou while her mother sinks in Paris.Mary felt an indescribably heavy heart when she left the laundress's quarters.

She'd seen the poor, she'd seen the workers who had next to nothing.But Mary is lucky that her working friends—Mostan, who has become Mrs. Watson, and her Irish friends, despite their poverty, are still full of hope.As for Milton's trade union representative Higgins, needless to say, his daughter's pneumoconiosis is incurable, but he himself still straightened his spine.

But they are just one side of countless poor people.

"Isn't Monsour's situation very bad," asked Mary, "worse than Milton's?"

"When you arrived in Milton a year ago, the cotton spinners' strike had just begun," Holmes replied, "but Monsour's strike has been going on for a long time."

"..."

Mary showed an unbearable look.

"You said you needed my assistance," said Mary. "Do you want me to go to Montsou?"

Holmes bowed his head.

He looked at Marie for a moment, then said, "I do need a helper if necessary. But Marie, you have to make sure you can accept Montsou's surroundings."

Mary raised her eyebrows disapprovingly: "I've been to the slums, Mr. Holmes."

Holmes: "That's right, you have only seen a corner of the slums in London, Miss Mary. The workers living in Montsour may live a more... primitive life than you have seen or known."

There was a hint of injustice between her words, and Sherlock Holmes shot back in the same way.Mary did not deny that he was right, that the slums of London did not represent where the world's poor lived, nor did the red-haired Irish lady Morstan and her friends represent all the poor.

The situation in the small town of Milton comes from the perspective of Mrs. Gaskell. She describes the contradictions of labor relations, but she does not necessarily understand the real living conditions of the workers.But Mary has also read books that truly describe the situation of workers. She remembers Vlasov's public speeches again and again, and she also remembers Gorky's childhood life.Mary probably understood what Mr. Holmes meant by "primitive".

"Human beings only care about decency when they are fed and clothed," said Mary. "I don't deny that there are many people who are short of food and clothing, just like Mr. Higgins in Milton. But more People don't have the chance to touch 'decency', and it's more important to stop Professor Moriarty than to be surprised by their behavior. I'll do my best to hold back my emotions and... sympathize."

Holmes twitched the corners of his mouth, but he did not smile.

"I see," said the detective. "It's good that you have this awareness. But we don't have to go back to Montsou now. The clues in Paris are just as important."

That being said, Mary couldn't be happier.

She was actually a little angry—not because Holmes reminded her, or because she couldn't help the poor.For the first time, Mary considered Professor James Moriarty's motives with anger.

He wants to commit crimes and manipulate the market, so Mary can understand.But why does it have to influence the life and death of the poor every time?

If she hadn't met the professor in person, she would have imagined Moriarty as a ruthless and ruthless villain boss, a villain who stood behind a big capitalist and wanted to monopolize and control the world.But he wasn't, at least during the only two encounters with Mary where he showed no ambition, and the professor even showed sympathy for the Phantom, and for Miss Sorelli, who was terrified by threats.

What does such a person want to do?

Back at Erin's apartment, Mary was still preoccupied.She pushed open the door of the bedroom, thinking that Catherine and Lydia had gone sightseeing together today, but she didn't expect Lydia to be sitting by the window, holding her knees in a daze.

Mary who pushed open the door was startled by Lydia, and Lydia was also startled by Mary who came back suddenly.The little sister of the Bennet family shivered and almost fell from the window.

She was relieved when she saw that it was Mary, and couldn't help complaining: "Why did you come back suddenly?"

Mary: "...why didn't you go out?"

Lydia said nothing.

She subconsciously avoided Mary's gaze, and picked up the handkerchief at hand. The handkerchief was half embroidered, but even Mary, who was a mess of handwork, could tell that Lydia was absent-minded.

Okay, this is still competing with myself.

Mary once again hit Lydia's idea of ​​opening a store before, and anyone who was denied their dreams one after another would be discouraged.

And Mary, following Sherlock Holmes to visit the alcoholic laundress, saw her little sister troubled by her "dream" on the back.

Mary hadn't forgotten when Lydia had started to slow down, it was in Milton, after she had seen Nicholas Higgins' daughter succumbed to pneumoconiosis for a long time.

So Mary thought for a while: "It's useless for you to be bored, why don't we go for a walk?"

Lydia immediately became vigilant: "Where do you want to take me?"

Mary pulled a long-lost smirk: "The place I just came to."