{"product_id":"2940014556545","title":"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes","description":"...\u003cbr\u003e\"Mrs. Toller!\" cried Miss Hunter.\u003cbr\u003e\"Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before\u003cbr\u003ehe went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know\u003cbr\u003ewhat you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains\u003cbr\u003ewere wasted.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"Ha!\" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. \"It is clear that Mrs.\u003cbr\u003eToller knows more about this matter than anyone else.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several\u003cbr\u003epoints on which I must confess that I am still in the dark.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"I will soon make it clear to you,\" said she; \"and I'd have done\u003cbr\u003eso before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's\u003cbr\u003epolice-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the one\u003cbr\u003ethat stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend too.\u003cbr\u003e\"She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time\u003cbr\u003ethat her father married again. She was slighted like and had no say\u003cbr\u003ein anything, but it never really became bad for her until after she\u003cbr\u003emet Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could learn, Miss\u003cbr\u003eAlice had rights of her own by will, but she was so quiet and\u003cbr\u003epatient, she was, that she never said a word about them but just left\u003cbr\u003eeverything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was safe with her;\u003cbr\u003ebut when there was a chance of a husband coming forward, who\u003cbr\u003ewould ask for all that the law would give him, then her father\u003cbr\u003ethought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to sign a paper, so\u003cbr\u003ethat whether she married or not, he could use her money. When she\u003cbr\u003ewouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until she got brain-fever,\u003cbr\u003eand for six weeks was at death's door. Then she got better at last,\u003cbr\u003eall worn to a shadow, and with her beautiful hair cut off; but that\u003cbr\u003edidn't make no change in her young man, and he stuck to her as\u003cbr\u003etrue as man could be.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"Ah,\" said Holmes, \"I think that what you have been good\u003cbr\u003eenough to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can\u003cbr\u003ededuce all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this\u003cbr\u003esystem of imprisonment?\"\u003cbr\u003e\"Yes, sir.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid\u003cbr\u003eof the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"That was it, sir.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman\u003cbr\u003eshould be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by\u003cbr\u003ecertain arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that\u003cbr\u003eyour interests were the same as his.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman,\"\u003cbr\u003esaid Mrs. Toller serenely.\u003cbr\u003e\"And in this way he managed that your good man should have\u003cbr\u003eno want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment\u003cbr\u003ewhen your master had gone out.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"You have it, sir, just as it happened.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller,\" said Holmes,\u003cbr\u003e\"for you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us.\u003cbr\u003eAnd here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think.\u003cbr\u003eWatson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester,\u003cbr\u003eas it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a questionable\u003cbr\u003eone.\"\u003cbr\u003eAnd thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the\u003cbr\u003ecopper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but was\u003cbr\u003ealways a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of his\u003cbr\u003edevoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who probably\u003cbr\u003eknow so mUch of Rucastle's past life that he finds it difficult to\u003cbr\u003epart from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were married, by\u003cbr\u003especial license, in Southampton the day after their flight, and he is\u003cbr\u003enow the holder of a government appointment in the island of\u003cbr\u003eMauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend Holmes, rather to\u003cbr\u003emy disappointment, manifested no further interest in her when\u003cbr\u003eonce she had ceased to be the centre of one of his problems, and\u003cbr\u003eshe is now the head of a private school at Walsall, where I believe\u003cbr\u003ethat she has met with considerable success.","brand":"All classic book warehouse","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083774836976,"sku":"2940014556545","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014556545_p0.jpg?v=1763610751","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014556545","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}