Why, indeed? murmured Holmes. Your Majesty had not spoken before I
was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von
Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and hereditary King of
Bohemia.
But you can understand, said our strange visitor, sitting down once
more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, you can
understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in my own
person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not confide it to
an agent without putting myself in his power. I have come _incognito_
from Prague for the purpose of consulting you.
Then, pray consult, said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more.
The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a lengthy
visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known adventuress,
Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you.
Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor, murmured Holmes without
opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of docketing
all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it was difficult to
name a subject or a person on which he could not at once furnish
information. In this case I found her biography sandwiched in between
that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a staff-commander who had written a
monograph upon the deep-sea fishes.
Let me see! said Holmes. Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year 1858.
Contralto hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera of Warsaw yes!
Retired from operatic stage ha! Living in London quite so! Your
Majesty, as I understand, became entangled with this young person,
wrote her some compromising letters, and is now desirous of getting
those letters back.
Precisely so. But how
Was there a secret marriage?
None.
9