Produced by David Brannan. HTML version by Al Haines.
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
By
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"But why Turkish?" asked Mr. Sherlock Holmes, gazing fixedly at myboots. I was reclining in a cane-backed chair at the moment, and myprotruded feet had attracted his ever-active attention.
"English," I answered in some surprise. "I got them at Latimer's, inOxford Street."
Holmes smiled with an expression of weary patience.
"The bath!" he said; "the bath! Why the relaxing and expensive Turkishrather than the invigorating home-made article?"
"Because for the last few days I have been feeling rheumatic and old. ATurkish bath is what we call an alterative in medicine--a freshstarting-point, a cleanser of the system.
"By the way, Holmes," I added, "I have no doubt the connection betweenmy boots and a Turkish bath is a perfectly self-evident one to alogical mind, and yet I should be obliged to you if you would indicateit."
"The train of reasoning is not very obscure, Watson," said Holmes witha mischievous twinkle. "It belongs to the same elementary class ofdeduction which I should illustrate if I were to ask you who sharedyour cab in your drive this morning."
"I don't admit that a fresh illustration is an explanation," said Iwith some asperity.
"Bravo, Watson! A very dignified and logical remonstrance. Let mesee, what were the points? Take the last one first--the cab. Youobserve that you have some splashes on the left sleeve and shoulder ofyour coat. Had you sat in the centre of a hansom you would probablyhave had no splashes, and if you had they would certainly have beensymmetrical. 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 acertain way. I see them on this occasion fastened with an elaboratedouble bow, which is not your usual method of tying them. You have,therefore, had them off. Who has tied them? A bootmaker--or the boyat the bath. It is unlikely that it is the bootmaker, since your bootsare 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 mesuggest that you take one. How would Lausanne do, my dearWatson--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 hispocket.
"One of the most dangerous classes in the world," said he, "is thedrifting and friendless woman. She is the most harmless and often themost useful of mortals, but she is the inevitable inciter of crime inothers. She is helpless. She is migratory. She has sufficient meansto take her from country to country and from hotel to hotel. She islost, as often as not, in a maze of obscure pensions andboardinghouses. She is a stray chicken in a world of foxes. When sheis gobbled up she is hardly missed. I much fear that some evil has cometo the Lady Frances Carfax."
I was relieved at this sudden descent from the general to theparticular. Holmes consulted his notes.
"Lady Frances," he continued, "is the sole survivor of the directfamily of the late Earl of Rufton. The estates went, as you mayremember, in the male line. She was left with limited means, but withsome very remarkable old Spanish jewellery of silver and curiously cutdiamonds to which she was fondly attached--too attached, for sherefused to leave them with her banker and always carried them aboutwith her. A rather pathetic figure, the Lady Frances, a beautifulwoman, still in fresh middle age, and yet, by a strange change, thelast 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 fouryears it has been her invariable custom to write every second week toMiss Dobney, her old governess, who has long retired and lives inCamberwell. It is this Miss Dobney who has consulted me. Nearly fiveweeks have passed without a word. The last letter was from the HotelNational at Lausanne. Lady Frances seems to have left there and givenno address. The family are anxious, and as they are exceedinglywealthy no sum will be spared if we can clear the matter up."
"Is Miss Dobney the only source of information? Surely she had othercorrespondents?"
"There is one correspondent who is a sure draw, Watson. That is thebank. Single ladies must live, and their passbooks are compresseddiaries. 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 largeone and probably left her with cash in hand. Only one check has beendrawn since."
"To whom, and where?"
"To Miss Marie Devine. There is nothing to show where the check wasdrawn. It was cashed at the Credit Lyonnais at Montpellier less thanthree 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 themaid of Lady Frances Carfax. Why she should have paid her this checkwe have not yet determined. I have no doubt, however, that yourresearches will soon clear the matter up."
"MY researches!"
"Hence the health-giving expedition to Lausanne. You know that Icannot possibly leave London while old Abrahams is in such mortalterror of his life. Besides, on general principles it is best that Ishould 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 soextravagant a rate as two pence a word, it waits your disposal nightand day at the end of the Continental wire."
Two days later found me at the Hotel National at Lausanne, where Ireceived every courtesy at the hands of M. Moser, the well-knownmanager. Lady Frances, as he informed me, had stayed there for severalweeks. She had been much liked by all who met her. Her age was notmore than forty. She was still handsome and bore every sign of havingin her youth been a very lovely woman. M. Moser knew nothing of anyvaluable jewellery, but it had been remarked by the servants that theheavy trunk in the lady's bedroom was always scrupulously locked.Marie Devine, the maid, was as popular as her mistress. She wasactually engaged to one of the head waiters in the hotel, and there wasno difficulty in getting her address. It was 11 Rue de Trajan,Montpellier. All this I jotted down and felt that Holmes himself couldnot have been more adroit in collecting his facts.
Only one corner still remained in the shadow. No light which Ipossessed could clear up the cause for the lady's sudden departure.She was very happy at Lausanne. There was every reason to believe thatshe intended to remain for the season in her luxurious roomsoverlooking 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 JulesVibart, the lover of the maid, had any suggestion to offer. Heconnected the sudden departure with the visit to the hotel a day or twobefore of a tall, dark, bearded man. "Un sauvage--un veritablesauvage!" cried Jules Vibart. The man had rooms somewhere in the town.He had been seen talking earnestly to Madame on the promenade by thelake. Then he had called. She had refused to see him. He wasEnglish, but of his name there was no record. Madame had left theplace immediately afterwards. Jules Vibart, and, what was of moreimportance, Jules Vibart's sweetheart, thought that this call and thedeparture were cause and effect. Only one thing Jules would notdiscuss. 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 toMontpellier and ask her.
So ended the first chapter of my inquiry. The second was devoted tothe place which Lady Frances Carfax had sought when she left Lausanne.Concerning this there had been some secrecy, which confirmed the ideathat she had gone with the intention of throwing someone off her track.Otherwise why should not her luggage have been openly labelled forBaden? Both she and it reached the Rhenish spa by some circuitousroute. This much I gathered from the manager of Cook's local office.So to Baden I went, after dispatching to Holmes an account of all myproceedings and receiving in reply a telegram of half-humorouscommendation.
At Baden the track was not difficult to follow. Lady Frances hadstayed at the Englischer Hof for a fortnight.