But I never had the slightest compunction with regard to them when I knew beyond doubt what they were at.

Friends and associates of criminals have more than once waited on me for the purpose of enlisting my sympathy and help for one of their colleagues who was about to be released from prison, and the vagabonds have actually informed detectives that "Mr.Holmes was going to take him in hand." What they really meant was, that they had taken Mr.Holmes in hand for the purpose of lulling the just suspicions of the police.

One day not long ago a woman, expensively dressed and possessed of a whole mass of flaxen hair, burst into my office.

She was very excited, spoke good English with an altogether exaggerated French accent, and her action was altogether grotesque and stereotyped.

She informed me that she had that morning come from Paris to consult me.
When I inquired what she knew about me and how she got my address, she said that a well-known journalist and a member of Parliament whom she had met in Paris had advised her to consult with me about the future of a man shortly to be discharged from prison.