can only give you a very general answer to that for the moment.
By the way, I have been reading a short but clear and interesting
account of the old building, purchasable at the modest sum of one penny
from the local tobacconist."

Here Holmes drew a small tract, embellished with a rude engraving of the
ancient Manor House, from his waistcoat pocket.

"It immensely adds to the zest of an investigation, my dear Mr. Mac,
when one is in conscious sympathy with the historical atmosphere of
one's surroundings. Don't look so impatient; for I assure you that even
so bald an account as this raises some sort of picture of the past in
one's mind. Permit me to give you a sample. 'Erected in the fifth year
of the reign of James I, and standing upon the site of a much older
building, the Manor House of Birlstone presents one of the finest
surviving examples of the moated Jacobean residence--'"

"You are making fools of us, Mr. Holmes!"

"Tut, tut, Mr. Mac!--the first sign of temper I have detected in you.
Well, I won't read it verbatim, since you feel so strongly upon the
subject. But when I tell you that there is some account of the taking
of the place by a parliamentary colonel in 1644, of the concealment of
Charles for several days in the course of the Civil War, and finally
of a visit there by the second George, you will admit that there are
various associations of interest connected with this ancient house."

"I don't doubt it, Mr. Holmes; but that is no business of ours."

"Is it not? Is it not? Breadth of view, my dear Mr. Mac, is one of the
essentials of our profession. The interplay of ideas and the oblique
uses of knowledge are often of extraordinary interest. You will excuse
these remarks from one who, though a mere connoisseur of crime, is still
rather older and perhaps more experienced than yourself."

"I'm the first to admit that," said the detective heartily. "You get to
your point, I admit; but you have such a deuced round-the-corner way of
doing it."

"Well, well, I'll drop past history and get down to present-day facts. I
called last night, as I have already said, at the Manor House. I did not
see either Barker or Mrs. Douglas. I saw no necessity to disturb them;
but I was pleased to hear that the lady was not visibly pining and that
she had partaken of an excellent dinner. My visit was specially made
to the good Mr. Ames, with whom I exchanged some amiabilities, which
culminated in his allowing me, withou