福尔摩斯-孤身骑车人 The Solitary Cyclist

The Solitary ¹ Cyclist,Arthur Conan Doyle,From the years 1894 to 1901 inclusive Mr. Sherlock Holmes was a very busy man. It is safe to say that there was no public case of any difficulty in which he was not consulted during those eight years, and there were hundreds of private cases, some of them of the most intricate and extraordinary character, in which he played a prominent part. Many startling successes and a few unavoidable failures were the outcome of this long period of continuous work. As I have preserved very full notes of all these cases, and was myself personally engaged in many of them, it may be imagined that it is no easy task to know which I should select to lay before the public. I shall, however, preserve my former rule, and give the preference to those cases which derive ³ their interest not so much from the brutality ⁵ of the crime as from the ingenuity ⁶ and dramatic quality of the solution. For this reason I will now lay before the reader the facts connected with Miss Violet Smith, the solitary cyclist of Charlington, and the curious sequel of our investigation ⁷, which culminated ⁸ in unexpected tragedy. It is true that the circumstances did not admit of any striking illustration of those powers for which my friend was famous, but there were some points about the case which made it stand out in those long records of crime from which I gather the material for these little narratives ⁹.,On referring to my note-book for the year 1895 I find that it was upon Saturday, the 23rd of April, that we first heard of Miss Violet Smith. Her visit was, I remember, extremely unwelcome to Holmes, for he was immersed at the moment in a very abstruse ¹⁰ and complicated problem concerning the peculiar ¹¹ persecution ¹² to which John Vincent Harden, the well-known tobacco millionaire, had been subjected. My friend, who loved above all things precision and concentration of thought, resented anything which distracted his attention from the matter in hand. And yet without a harshness which was foreign to his nature it was impossible to refuse to listen to the story of the young and beautiful woman, tall, graceful ¹⁴, and queenly, who presented herself at Baker ¹⁵ Street late in the evening and implored ¹⁶ his assistance and advice. It was vain to urge that his time was already fully ¹⁷ occupied, for the young lady had come with the determination to tell her story, and it was evident that nothing short of force could get her out of the room until she had done so. With a resigned air and a somewhat weary smile, Holmes begged the beautiful intruder to take a seat and to inform us what it was that was troubling her.,“At least it cannot be your health,” said he, as his keen eyes darted ¹⁸ over her; “so ardent ¹⁹ a bicyclist must be full of energy. ”,She glanced down in surprise at her own feet, and I observed the slight roughening of the side of the sole caused by the friction ²⁰ of the edge of the pedal.,My friend took the lady's ungloved hand and examined it with as close an attention and as little sentiment as a scientist would show to a specimen ²¹.,“You will excuse me, I am sure. It is my business,
” said he, as he dropped it. “I nearly fell into the error of supposing that you were typewriting. Of course, it is obvious that it is music. You observe the spatulate finger-end, Watson, which is common to both professions? There is a spirituality about the face, however”—he gently turned it towards the light—“which the typewriter does not generate. This lady is a musician. ”,“Yes, Mr. Holmes, I teach music.
”,“In the country, I presume, from your complexion ²².”,“Yes, sir; near Farnham, on the borders of Surrey. ”,The castle rises in solitary splendour on the fringe of the desert.这座城堡巍然耸立在沙漠的边际，显得十分壮美。,He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了 ，也老点了 。