[Sherlock Holmes] The Legend of the Nightingale

(God's perspective)

Although Holmes himself insisted that the witches would come to the manor the next day, and despite the old Mrs. Holmes's repeated beggings that he must stay at home and not leave others to deal with the coming terrible visit, Holmes lazily agreed, and Violet There is still an uneasy premonition.Sure enough, at lunch the next day, Sherlock miraculously did not appear at the table, the maid could not find him anywhere, and no one in the family saw him go out.

"Sure enough, it's still the same as before." Violet looked at the plate dejectedly, not wanting to move anything. "Never follow the agreement. We will never know what he is thinking."

Readers need to understand such a matter, although Holmes has spoken first on this matter, but in most other cases, when a mother says "agreed" with her son, it means that she is "willing" herself, and she thinks The son "of course wants to".

Sig Holmes said nothing.

"Sig, I can't stand this." The old lady declared, "If those girls come again today, drive them away. Let the housekeeper go, and don't go to the door to make a fool of yourself like yesterday."

"Relax, Letty." Old Mr. Holmes was surprisingly calm today. "If it's important, it shouldn't be done, even for Sherringford's sake."

"What do you mean! If he had anything to say to them, he should have said it himself, and if I knew what to do, there would be no such thing as Sheringford."

"No matter who is here, you should at least keep her until three o'clock in the afternoon. After afternoon tea, Sherlock will probably come back."

"What did you say?" the old lady said angrily, "When did you discuss it?"

"There is no need to discuss it," the old man corrected. "This is a serious task, and it cannot be tolerated like a child."

Originally immersed in the success of bringing her son back from London with her own efforts, Violet never expected that at the critical moment, the father and son reached an unfathomable consensus without saying a word.She probably overlooked the fact that it is impossible for Holmes to trust women more when talking about serious matters, even his own mother—or, according to the current situation of the Holmes family, perhaps it should be said that his own mother in particular.

So old lady Violet became the only candidate for this important task.The old couple's schedule has always been precise, and their activities are the same every day.After lunch, when Violet was preparing afternoon tea, the maid came in a bit embarrassed and said, "There is a witch standing at the door."Violet cleared her throat in embarrassment, because she couldn't show fear in front of the maid, she deliberately put on a more proud look than usual, and went downstairs steadily, the maid was a little scared.In fact, she could have asked the maid to bring the visitor, but she was anxious for a moment, and instead ran down by herself.

Violet saw the plainly dressed young woman, too nervous to ring the doorbell, standing at the bottom of the steps, clutching a thin booklet tightly in her hand.When the door opened suddenly, she jumped back a step in fright. Seeing that it was Mrs. Holmes, she walked back down the steps embarrassingly.Seeing her timid look, Violet suddenly suddenly felt an elderly person's concern for children.It wasn't until she saw clearly what the book was in the young woman's hand that she regained consciousness.A booklet bound in vellum, with a blank cover, nothing written on it.Almost everyone in North Riding knew that it was a book of Old English spells she had copied by hand.She—God forgive! -- Carry it with you every day like a Bible!Violet thought angrily, these witches are fooling others, and they are also very stupid.As long as they read this book, even people who don't know her face can be sure that this is Cindy Green, the new witch of North Riding according to legend.Violet harbors another fear of strangers.

"Good afternoon, Miss Green." Violet said, her expression was a little stiff because of her complicated mood.

"Good afternoon, madam. I have come to see Mr. Holmes," replied the other party.

"Which one?" Violet asked coldly.

"Mr. Sherlock Holmes." Cindy Green thought for a moment and replied.

"Unfortunately, he is not here now."

"Unfortunately, he didn't understand what we meant."

This somewhat rude answer displeased Violet, and she wanted to send this strange woman away immediately, but she held back thinking that old Mr. Holmes would yell at her later.

"Come in and sit down for a while, just in time for our afternoon tea. Sherlock will be back."

"I appreciate your kindness, ma'am, but I fear that I have inadvertently forced this invitation on you."

Violet subconsciously took a deep breath.She is really angry.

"Of course not, Miss Green, please. There's room in the house, and I'd love to have someone to talk to."

Cindy's pale face flushed a little, and she clutched the book in her hand again, the cover was a little wrinkled.Violet turned and walked through the door without looking.She knew the guests would follow in quietly.

Mrs. Holmes let Miss Green into the living room and asked the maid to bring the tea here. Although she hated being in the same room with the witch, she couldn't rest assured that she would leave this woman a chance to be alone. Personal long silence.Cindy understood the hostess' attitude towards her very well, and she was not in a hurry, or did not have the courage to initiate the topic.Violet was amazed to sense that, despite the subtle sharpness of her words, Cindy Green was actually incredibly awkward at communicating with people.A few times Violet looked at her plan to break the embarrassment, and she was aware of it, but said nothing, just looked away in embarrassment and openly.The two sides remained silent for 10 minutes, and Cindy began to look at the books placed in the living room for the entertainment of the guests.At first Mrs. Holmes took her for granted, but soon realized that the girl was so engrossed in examining each book that she had forgotten that there was another person in the room.

"Have you read that book?" asked Mrs. Holmes calmly.She didn't get any response the first time, so she had to raise her voice and ask again.

"Miss Green, have you read that book too?"

Her somewhat harsh tone startled Cindy Green.The young woman sat upright on the sofa in embarrassment, moving a little away from the bookcase.

"No, ma'am, but I sort of know what it's about."

Mrs. Holmes smiled, walked to the bookcase, and picked up the beautiful German book.It was brought back by the whole family from a trip to the European continent. Although it has been kept in the living room, it is still as brand new, because on the one hand, not every guest can read German for entertainment, and on the other hand, these books are basically For decoration, no one came to the living room to read a book.In terms of language, the Holmes family has an absolute right to speak.Sherlock was proficient in six languages, all of which were taught by Mr. Sig.Sherinford was a classic Oxford degree, Latin and Greek were specialists, and to Mycroft all languages ​​written in the Latin alphabet were codes.Mrs. Holmes herself is proficient in French and German due to her blood and family education.Looking at Cindy's perplexed eyes, she knew that she would not be able to recognize all the English words in a random Johnson (Note 1) article given to her.

"So you know what this is?"

"Faust (note 2)," Cindy replied.

"You say you know the story?"

"I have read the translation, ma'am."

"So can you talk about it? Like, favorite character..."

"Mephistopheles (Note 3)."

Mrs. Holmes paused, or rather shocked.Yes, she should have guessed this answer earlier, but she just didn't expect that the girl would interrupt her to say the name of the demon she liked, and she was so calm.

"It is not good, my dear Miss Green," sighed Mrs. Holmes.

"Why?" the young woman looked at her peacefully and said, "I always thought, if there is a person in this world, such an actor, who can perform the way I want, I will definitely fall in love with him."

This rhetorical question was so abrupt and reckless that Mrs. Holmes was stunned for a long time and could not find a suitable word to respond.In the end, she could only sigh helplessly:

"my God!"

This sentence made Cindy realize that she had said too much.She bowed her head in silence for a moment.

"It's not like that, ma'am," she whispered, "it's one thing in the poem, it's another thing out of it."

"You read poetry?"

"Just one thing, ma'am."

"For example—what is your favorite?" At this moment, Violet thought to herself, please don't tell me that it is "Paradise Lost (Note 4)", and don't tell me that your favorite character is—God forgive us!There are always some people who are the accomplices of the devil without realizing it.

"La Belle Dames ans Merci (Note 5)."

This answer greatly exceeded Violet's expectations.Cindy's awkward French pronunciation—struggling to pronounce the final "e" in "belle"—also piqued her interest.Now the topic has jumped from German literature to English poetry with French titles. Violet speculates that this girl is probably a so-called "bookworm (Note 6)".

"Keats, or Alain Chartier?"

From the idiot-like expression of the other party, Violet speculated that she had asked this question for nothing.At this time the maid brought in the tea tray.Violet put down the book and turned to get tea. When she came back, she saw Cindy looking at the Faust book hesitantly, as if she wanted to touch it but dared not do it.

"You can watch it, it's okay." Violet sighed troubledly, thinking to herself, she didn't understand a word anyway.Then Miss Green gratefully grabbed the book, and turned the pages like a child looking at a picture—she could only see a few full-page illustrations in it.

Sherlock never came back that afternoon.Mrs. Violet was unable to extract any useful information from a nervous Cindy Green, nor could she discern any mystery from her speech and behavior, and finally had to send her out untouched.In the evening, Sherlock came back from the outside and heard that he was indifferent after this strange visit, and did not respond to Violet's stormy reprimand, only saying that the local police asked him to visit the scene temporarily, which is undoubtedly more important, so Did not rush back.

"You don't see her," said Violet savagely. "I don't see how these illiterate girls can make such a fool of Sherringford."

"Did you check her diploma, Mom? That's way better than mine."

"No, she probably has enough time this afternoon to finish reading the illustrations of that book." Violet pointed to the bookcase.After the guests left, she wiped the hard cover of the book well before putting it back.

"Which one? Did you show her Faust? Then you didn't... oh, it's fine. May I have a look?"

Note 1: The author of this chapter is a bit playful, so that the hot chicken notes are full. This, this, actually knows that Samuel Johnson is a great writer.

Note 2: Faust.This refers to Goethe's works, not Marlowe's.

Note 3: The devil Mephistopheles in "Faust".Two days ago, I just found out that a powerful translation is Dreamfistfellis...

Note 4: Milton's "Paradise Lost".There is a famous inspiring line after the defeat of Satan. Although looking at the full text, it is estimated that the author himself does not mean to be biased towards the villain in terms of theme, but this passage is really wonderful (it is not ruled out that the writer uses the character's mask to speak here. Some of my own meanings), some even said that Milton was the devil's helper without knowing it.

Note 5: Literal translation is "beauty is ruthless".

Note 6: The word "bookworm" is mostly commendatory now, but in the beginning it mainly meant someone who read a lot of books but didn't absorb at all, like a book-eating bug.

Note 7: It was originally a poem written by Alain Chartier in the 15th century. Later, Keats wrote a poem with the same name and a completely different meaning. It probably means that many heroes are frustrated in love and then abandoned by beauties (British and American The poetry teacher will be furious if she sees me like this).By the way, I often mix it up, Keats is Keats, Yeats is Yeats...

The author has something to say: Is there logic?

no logic...