[Comprehensive Classics] Detective Mary

What Holmes means is simple: act separately.Mr. Bingley went to Mr. Hamp to explain the stolen contract, while he and Mary found the worker shortly after it happened.

Just do what she said, Mary took her skirt and said goodbye to Mr. Bingley from the street, and followed the detective to the slums.

The bourgeoisie in the Victorian era was in a period of vigorous ascension. The increasing prosperity of industry and technology brought new opportunities and social outlook, but also brought about an increasingly disparate wealth and class gap.

The south of England is dominated by agriculture. When she lived in Longbourn, she was far away from the urban area and had no factories. The idyllic life and her father’s status as a country gentleman caused Mary to not have a strong sense of the book knowledge she received before crossing. feel.

But it's different in London.

Mr. Sherlock Holmes came to look for a worker who had been fired, and the workers in London are naturally very different from the environment in which gentlemen and ladies live.

Even with the knowledge of the 21st century, Mary, who has never personally experienced this history, did not really realize this until she stood in the middle of the barren and dilapidated neighborhood.

When she walked into the slums, Mary felt as if she had entered another world—the dusty streets, the low and dense houses, and the men and women wearing cotton clothes with patched cuffs on the streets. The picture made her clean clothes look out of place.

Fortunately Mary did not like extravagant dresses, and Lydia's cap, always embroidered with pretty designs, would have frightened the inhabitants of the place in the place of Lydia.

Mary is compelling enough now.

Even though she was neither afraid nor disgusted, the surprised eyes of passers-by still made Mary subconsciously feel uncomfortable.

As for Holmes, who was walking ahead, he was much more low-key.

Mr. Detective specially changed into an inconspicuous outfit. His old coat and shoes blended into the dusty street without any hindrance, and he looked no different from the residents living here.

"Sir," Mary began, "I won't hold you back, will I?"

Upon hearing this, Mr. Holmes slowed down a little, perhaps to prevent Mary from getting lost in the slums.

"What do you think?" He asked without answering.

"what?"

Mary was startled, and then realized: "About the secret meeting between Captain Carter and Mr. Hamp? Actually, I don't understand their motives."

Holmes lowered his head, motioning for Mary to continue talking.

After getting approval, Mary continued: "Assuming that the two of them knew each other beforehand and were accomplices, the one who recommended Mr. Bingley to change suppliers, and the other who instigated others to steal the contract, would have conflicting motives. So in my opinion Come on, they should not have known each other beforehand, or knew each other beforehand, but the purpose is different."

"You have no proof."

"Yes, these are all my guesses," Mary replied truthfully, "I haven't figured out the key yet, because these two assumptions can lead to two completely different results."

If they didn't know each other beforehand, then Captain Carter failed to steal the contract, and went to secretly meet with the factory owner who recommended to change the supplier. From this point of view...it seems to be preventing Mr. Bingley and his partners from changing the cotton merchant.

If they had known each other beforehand but had different purposes, first recommending Mr. Bingley to change the cotton supplier, and then sending someone to steal it after seeing that he did not sign the contract, this behavior would have the meaning of destroying evidence.

After thinking about it, Mary couldn't think of which one was more likely.

"I think," she could only say, "if the worker who was fired has been found, there may be useful clues to confirm the possibility."

Mr. Holmes nodded. "Exactly."

He didn't talk much, but a nod was enough to put Mary at ease.It seems that she can still keep up with Mr. Detective's train of thought!

"So, do you know where the workman is, sir?" asked Mary cheerfully.

"follow me."

He led Mary into a long indoor alley.

There were people coming and going around, and Mary passed by many pedestrians wearing old clothes.The top of the head was covered by the pitch-black ceiling, most of the light and cold wind were dispersed, and the air was filled with the smell of kerosene and poor air circulation, which made Mary wait for a long time before she got used to it.

Immediately afterwards, she heard cheerful singing coming from a certain room.

It was a group of people, both men and women, all gathered around a table at the same time, and they raised their glasses and sang joyously without any quarrel with each other.It's like enjoying a rare leisure time after a long day's work.

Sherlock Holmes pushed the door open and walked in.

"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen."

He took off his worn-out hat, and said directly, "Is Henry Deck there?"

The name of Henry Deckard was pronounced, and the whole room fell into silence.After a while, the man closest to Mr. Holmes stood up: "What do you want him for?"

Mary opened her eyes slightly.

This accent is Irish.

There was a terrible famine in Victorian Ireland. The potato production that local people depended on for survival was greatly reduced, causing many Irish people to choose to flee their hometown.

Strictly speaking, there are many reasons for this famine, but the root cause is still the exploitation and plunder of the bourgeoisie.After Cromwell incorporated Ireland into the British territory, the British aristocrats implemented a large number of land annexations, resulting in farmers having no land to grow, and could only live with cheap and productive potatoes.

Now, the famine is over, and most of the Irish have crossed the ocean to America.Some also came to London. Their labor force was far cheaper than that of local workers in London, so they were quite hostile and their living conditions were worse.

Mr. Holmes did not say that the workman dismissed by Mr. Hamp was an Irishman.

"We want to help him." Mary cleared her throat and spoke seriously.

The young man who asked a question snorted.

In the dimly lit room, Mary couldn't see his expression, but she also knew that the young man must be full of disdain at this time.

The young man clearly regarded Mary and Mr. Holmes as an ignorant young lady and a poor man she invited to lead the way.He looked up and down at the clean and decent Mary, and said unceremoniously: "With all due respect, miss, this is not a place for you."

"Why can't I come?"

"why?"

The young man sneered: "Aren't you afraid that your beautiful shoes will be stained with lice, feces and oil, miss? Listen to my advice, you'd better go back as soon as possible. You are so beautifully dressed. This is not a place for you to stay in clean clothes." The place."

If it were any other young lady, even if she had the courage to step in here, she would probably be made to blush by this dismissive tone.

In the eyes of the workers, an unmarried lady like her is pampered and has no worries about food and clothing. The so-called "help" is nothing more than useless pity and condescending charity.

Workers may eat and drink, but they also have human dignity.

But Mary didn't engage in poverty alleviation on a whim, so she just raised her eyebrows: "Friedrich Engels also walked into the worker's residence in Manchester wearing clean clothes. If he stood in front of you, would you say the same thing?" ?”

"you--"

The young man choked hard on Mary. He never expected that a girl from a rich family could directly use Engels' name.

Mary spoke uprightly: "His two lovers are both you Irish!"

She can tell the truth in every sentence, Engels, another founder of Marxism, swore to the death to defend the dignity and status of the working class, and a proletarian who fought for communism all his life, but he was the son of a big factory owner.

But it doesn't matter that his consciousness transcends his own class attributes and the entire era, doesn't it?

"Engels is a man," the man sitting next to the young man couldn't help but said, "You are a girl, do you still want to be Engels? What are you doing nonsense, get out of here, miss, or don't blame us for being rude!"

"What does it mean for a girl to mess around?"

Before Mary could speak, the girls at the other end of the table booed a lot. The red-haired girl at the head put the wine glass heavily on the table, folded her arms and scolded: "What's wrong with the girls, there are no us women, Did you men jump out of the cracks in the rocks?"

Men: "..."

The red-haired girl glared fiercely at the man who was about to drive him away, and slowed down her tone: "Henry has just been fired from the Hamp Factory, miss, he is in a very bad mood now, and he is resting, so don't bother him."

Sure enough, it was useful to move out Engels.

After all, it is the working class, even if they have not received the teaching of communism, they have not learned the theoretical knowledge of Marxism.But when it comes to the proletarians, Mary can feel that the atmosphere in the room has obviously eased up a lot.

At least, the young matchmaker spoke politely.

"I know you don't trust me," Mary took the opportunity to say, "but you must trust my companion, miss. He is Sherlock Holmes, a detective from London, who came here for Henry's expulsion."

"Holmes?"

The man who had spoken rudely just now said in disbelief after hearing the detective's name, "Is that... Sherlock Holmes?"

Several Irish youths couldn't help whispering.

Well, it seems that the name of Mr. Holmes is particularly useful even in the slums.

In the end, the red-haired girl was the representative, and she stood up: "I didn't expect it to be Mr. Detective and his friends, then everything is easy to talk about. Come with me."

Mary: "..."

If I knew it earlier, I would have directly introduced Mr. Holmes!Mary couldn't laugh or cry, his name was more useful than Engels.

"Forgive our vigilance, ma'am," said the red-haired girl, holding up a candle from the room, and beckoned Mary and Holmes to follow her. "Henry has been dismissed abruptly, and the overseer's reason is that he steals—Henry is more man than steel." Honesty, he can't steal things at all. The supervisor of the Hamp factory said so, no factory will be willing to hire him in the future, there must be something wrong with it."

"Mr. Holmes thinks that Henry Deckard has heard something he shouldn't have heard."

"...Then it makes sense."

The red-haired girl let out a long sigh of relief. She slowed down her pace and looked back at Mary and Mr. Holmes: "The detective is here, that's really great. You will make Henry innocent, sir?"

"I'll find out the truth."

"Thank you," said the red-haired girl. "And you, miss? And why am I here?"

"I'm for the truth, too," Mary replied politely, "Just call me Mary."

"So coincidentally?"

The red-haired girl looked surprised: "My name is Mary too."

This is not surprising.There are countless young girls with the same name as Mary throughout Great Britain, so she just raised the corners of her lips: "Engels' wife is also named Mary, maybe this is fate?"

The red-haired girl with the same name laughed out loud: "It's really my honor, miss."

"Thank you."

"I should be the one to thank you," the red-haired girl said sincerely. "In London, Mr. Sherlock Holmes is probably the only one who cares about our lives."

It sounds like detectives hold a high place in the hearts of the poor.

And judging by how familiar he was when he entered the slums, I am afraid that before moving into 221b, Sherlock Holmes had been running back and forth in various neighborhoods in London, and perhaps helped the workers solve cases?That's why it has such a good reputation.

"I care about the truth."

The detective himself said dryly, "Where's Henry Deckard?"

"It's right here."

As the red-haired girl spoke, she pushed open a door on the left hand side of the alley.

The door was as dilapidated as the whole block, and when she pushed open the wooden door, an extremely unpleasant smell emanated from it.Before Mary realized what it was, a pair of big bony hands behind her directly covered her mouth and nose.

His strength was so great that Mary staggered and crashed into the man's arms—it was Holmes who held her back.

"Hold your breath!"

The detective shouted.

He pulled Mary away, not forgetting to remind the Irish red-haired girl, "Be careful, there's—"

Before the detective could finish speaking, a black shadow rushed out of the room.