The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax(失踪的女士弗朗西斯卡法克斯)

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The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

The Disappearance of

Lady Frances Carfax

By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

"But why Turkish?" asked Mr. Sherlock Holmes, gazing fixedly at my

boots. I was reclining in a cane-backed chair at the moment, and my

protruded feet had attracted his ever-active attention.

"English," I answered in some surprise. "I got them at Latimer's, in

Oxford Street."

Holmes smiled with an expression of weary patience.

"The bath!" he said; "the bath! Why the relaxing and expensive

Turkish rather than the invigorating home-made article?"

"Because for the last few days I have been feeling rheumatic and old.

A Turkish bath is what we call an alterative in medicine--a fresh starting-

point, a cleanser of the system.

"By the way, Holmes," I added, "I have no doubt the connection

between my boots and a Turkish bath is a perfectly self-evident one to a

logical mind, and yet I should be obliged to you if you would indicate it."

"The train of reasoning is not very obscure, Watson," said Holmes with

a mischievous twinkle. "It belongs to the same elementary class of

deduction which I should illustrate if I were to ask you who shared your

cab in your drive this morning."

"I don't admit that a fresh illustration is an explanation," said I with

some asperity.

"Bravo, Watson! A very dignified and logical remonstrance. Let

me see, what were the points? Take the last one first--the cab. You

observe that you have some splashes on the left sleeve and shoulder of

your coat. Had you sat in the centre of a hansom you would probably

have had no splashes, and if you had they would certainly have been

symmetrical. Therefore it is clear that you sat at the side. Therefore it

is equally clear that you had a companion."

"That is very evident."

"Absurdly commonplace, is it not?"

"But the boots and the bath?"

"Equally childish. You are in the habit of doing up your boots in a

certain way. I see them on this occasion fastened with an elaborate

double bow, which is not your usual method of tying them. You have,

The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

therefore, had them off. Who has tied them? A bootmaker--or the boy

at the bath. It is unlikely that it is the bootmaker, since your boots are

nearly new. Well, what remains? The bath. Absurd, is it not? But, for

all that, the Turkish bath has served a purpose."

"What is that?"

"You say that you have had it because you need a change. Let me

suggest that you take one. How would Lausanne do, my dear Watson--

first-class tickets and all expenses paid on a princely scale?"

"Splendid! But why?"

Holmes leaned back in his armchair and took his notebook from his

pocket.

"One of the most dangerous classes in the world," said he, "is the

drifting and friendless woman. She is the most harmless and often the

most useful of mortals, but she is the inevitable inciter of crime in others.

She is helpless. She is migratory. She has sufficient means to take her

from country to country and from hotel to hotel. She is lost, as often as

not, in a maze of obscure pensions and boardinghouses. She is a stray

chicken in a world of foxes. When she is gobbled up she is hardly

missed. I much fear that some evil has come to the Lady Frances Carfax."

I was relieved at this sudden descent from the general to the particular.

Holmes consulted his notes.

"Lady Frances," he continued, "is the sole survivor of the direct family

of the late Earl of Rufton. The estates went, as you may remember, in the

male line. She was left with limited means, but with some very

remarkable old Spanish jewellery of silver and curiously cut diamonds to

which she was fondly attached--too attached, for she refused to leave them

with her banker and always carried them about with her. A rather

pathetic figure, the Lady Frances, a beautiful woman, still in fresh middle

age, and yet, by a strange change, the last derelict of what only twenty

years ago was a goodly fleet."

"What has happened to her, then?"

"Ah, what has happened to the Lady Frances? Is she alive or dead?

There is our problem. She is a lady of precise habits, and for four years it

has been her invariable custom to write every second week to Miss

The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

Dobney, her old governess, who has long retired and lives in Camberwell.

It is this Miss Dobney who has consulted me. Nearly five weeks have

passed without a word. The last letter was from the Hotel National at

Lausanne. Lady Frances seems to have left there and given no address.

The family are anxious, and as they are exceedingly wealthy no sum will

be spared if we can clear the matter up."

"Is Miss Dobney the only source of information? Surely she had

other correspondents?"

"There is one correspondent who is a sure draw, Watson. That is the

bank. Single ladies must live, and their passbooks are compressed

diaries. She banks at Silvester's. I have glanced over her account.

The last check but one paid her bill at Lausanne, but it was a large one and

probably left her with cash in hand. Only one check has been drawn

since."

"To whom, and where?"

"To Miss Marie Devine. There is nothing to show where the check

was drawn. It was cashed at the Credit Lyonnais at Montpellier less than

three weeks ago. The sum was fifty pounds."

"And who is Miss Marie Devine?"

"That also I have been able to discover. Miss Marie Devine was the

maid of Lady Frances Carfax. Why she should have paid her this check

we have not yet determined. I have no doubt, however, that your

researches will soon clear the matter up."

"MY researches!"

"Hence the health-giving expedition to Lausanne. You know that I

cannot possibly leave London while old Abrahams is in such mortal terror

of his life. Besides, on general principles it is best that I should not leave

the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, and it causes an

unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes. Go, then, my dear

Watson, and if my humble counsel can ever be valued at so extravagant a

rate as two pence a word, it waits your disposal night and day at the end of

the Continental wire."

Two days later found me at the Hotel National at Lausanne, where I

received every courtesy at the hands of M. Moser, the well- known

The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax

manager. Lady Frances, as he informed me, had stayed there for several

weeks. She had been much liked by all who met her. Her age was not

more than forty. She was still handsome and bore every sign of having in

her youth been a very lovely woman. M. Moser knew nothing of any

valuable jewellery, but it had been remarked by the servants that the heavy

trunk in the lady's bedroom was always scrupulously locked. Marie

Devine, the maid, was as popular as her mistress. She was actually

engaged to one of the head waiters in the hotel, and there was no difficulty

in getting her address. It was 11 Rue de Trajan, Montpellier. All this I

jotted down and felt that Holmes himself could not have been more adroit

in collecting his facts.

Only one corner still remained in the shadow. No light which I

possessed could clear up the cause for the lady's sudden departure. She

was very happy at Lausanne. There was every reason to believe that she

intended to remain for the season in her luxurious rooms overlooking the

lake. And yet she had left at a single day's notice, which involved her in

the useless payment of a week's rent. Only Jules Vibart, the lover of the

maid, had any suggestion to offer. He connected the sudden departure

with the visit to the hotel a day or two before of a tall, dark, bearded man.

"Un sauvage--un veritable sauvage!" cried Jules Vibart. The man had

rooms somewhere in the town. He had been seen talking earnestly to

Madame on the promenade by the lake. Then he had called. She had

refused to see him. He was English, but of his name there was no record.

Madame had left the place immediately afterwards. Jules Vibart, and,

what was of more importance, Jules Vibart's sweetheart, thought that this

call and the departure were cause and effect. Only one thing Jules would

not discuss. That was the reason why Marie had left her mistress. Of

that he could or would say nothing. If I wished to know, I must go to

Montpellier and ask her.

So ended the first chapter of my inquiry. The second was devoted to

the place which Lady Frances Carfax had sought when she left Lausanne.

Concerning this there had been some secrecy, which confirmed the idea

that she had gone with the intention of throwing someone off her track.

Otherwise why should not her luggage have been openly labelled for

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TheDisappearanceofLadyFrancesCarfax1TheDisappearanceofLadyFrancesCarfaxBySirArthurConanDoyleTheDisappearanceofLadyFrancesCarfax2"ButwhyTurkish?"askedMr.SherlockHolmes,gazingfixedlyatmyboots.Iwasreclininginacane-backedchairatthemoment,andmyprotrudedfeethadattractedhisever-activeattention."English,"Ia...

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The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax(失踪的女士弗朗西斯卡法克斯)

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