"
Holmes chuckled and rubbed his hands. "Great!" he said. "Great!
Tell me, Friend MacDonald, this pleasing and touching interview
was, I suppose, in the professor's study?"
"That's so."
"A fine room, is it not?"
"Very fine -- very handsome indeed, Mr. Holmes."
"You sat in front of his writing desk?"
"Just so."
"Sun in your eyes and his face in the shadow?"
"Well, it was evening; but I mind that the lamp was turned on my
face."
"It would be. Did you happen to observe a picture over the
professor's head?"
"I don't miss much, Mr. Holmes. Maybe I learned that from you.
Yes, I saw the picture--a young woman with her head on her hands,
peeping at you sideways."
"That painting was by Jean Baptiste Greuze."
The inspector endeavoured to look interested.
"Jean Baptiste Greuze," Holmes continued, joining his finger tips
and leaning well back in his chair, "was a French artist who
flourished between the years 1750 and 1800. I allude, of course
to his working career. Modern criticism has more than indorsed
the high opinion formed of him by his contemporaries."
The inspector's eyes grew abstracted.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41