My brother and I naturally associated this peculiar incident with the fear which haunted my father during his life; but it is still a complete mystery to us." The little man stopped to relight his hookah and puffed thoughtfully for a few moments.

We had all sat absorbed, listening to his extraordinary narrative.

At the short account of her father's death Miss Morstan had turned deadly white, and for a moment I feared that she was about to faint.

She rallied however, on drinking a glass of water which I quietly poured out for her from a Venetian carafe upon the side-table.

Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair with an abstracted expression and the lids drawn low over his glittering eyes.
As I glanced at him I could not but think how on that very day he had complained bitterly of the commonplaceness of life.