Oil Painting Gallery

Oil Painting Gallery
Alfred Gockel paintings
It was a long day. Every time that a knock came to the door or a sharp step passed in the street, I imagined that it was either Holmes returning or an answer to his advertisement. I tried to read, but my thoughts would wander off to our strange quest and to the ill-assorted and villainous pair whom we were pursuing. Could there be, I wondered, some radical flaw in my companion's reasoning? Might he not be suffering from some huge self-deception? Was it not possible that his nimble and speculative mind had built up this wild theory upon faulty premises? I had never known him to be wrong, and yet the keenest reasoner may occasionally be deceived. He was likely, I thought, to fall into error through the over-refinement of his logic -- his preference for a subtle and bizarre explanation when a plainer and more commonplace one lay ready to his hand. Yet, on the other hand, I had myself seen the evidence, and I had heard the reasons for his deductions. When I looked back on the long chain of curious circumstances, many of them trivial in themselves but all tending in the same direction, I could not
-132-disguise from myself that even if Holmes's explanation were incorrect the true theory must be equally outre and startling.

Raphael Madonna and Child with Book painting

Raphael Madonna and Child with Book painting
Daniel Ridgway Knight The Honeymoon Breakfast painting
Well, I say no: and therefore for assuranceLet's each one send unto his wife;And he whose wife is most obedientTo come at first when he doth send for her,Shall win the wager which we will propose.
HORTENSIO
Content. What is the wager?
LUCENTIO
Twenty crowns.
PETRUCHIO
Twenty crowns!I'll venture so much of my hawk or hound,But twenty times so much upon my wife.
LUCENTIO
A hundred then.I'll be your half, Bianca comes.
LUCENTIO
I'll have no halves; I'll bear it all myself.
[Re-enter BIONDELLO]
How now! what news?
BIONDELLO
Sir, my mistress sends you wordThat she is busy and she cannot come.
PETRUCHIO
How! she is busy and she cannot come!Is that an answer?
GREMIO
Ay, and a kind one too:

Edward Hopper Ground Swell painting

Edward Hopper Ground Swell painting
Lord Frederick Leighton The Painter's Honeymoon painting saw my master wink and laugh upon you?
LUCENTIO
Biondello, what of that?
BIONDELLO
Faith, nothing; but has left me here behind, toexpound the meaning or moral of his signs and tokens.
LUCENTIO
I pray thee, moralize them.
BIONDELLO
Then thus. Baptista is safe, talking with thedeceiving father of a deceitful son.
LUCENTIO
And what of him?old priest of Saint Luke's church is at yourcommand at all hours.
LUCENTIO
And what of all this?
BIONDELLO
I cannot tell; expect they are busied about acounterfeit assurance: take you assurance of her,'cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum:' to thechurch; take the priest, clerk, and some sufficienthonest witnesses: If this be not that you look for,I have no more to say, But bid Bianca farewell forever and a day.

Pablo Picasso Card Player painting

Pablo Picasso Card Player painting
Tamara de Lempicka Self Portrait in Green Bugatti painting
I assented gladly, and we all descended together. Our prisoner made no attempt at escape, but stepped calmly into the cab which had been his, and we followed him. Lestrade mounted the box, whipped up the horse, and brought us in a very short time to our destination.
-108-We were ushered into a small chamber, where a police inspector noted down our prisoner's name and the names of the men with whose murder he had been charged. The official was a white-faced, unemotional man, who went through his duties in a dull, mechanical way. "The prisoner will be put before the magistrates in the course of the week," he said; "in the meantime, Mr. Jefferson Hope, have you anything that you wish to say? I must warn you that your words will be taken down, and may be used against you."
"I've got a good deal to say," our prisoner said slowly. "I want to tell you gentlemen all about it."
"Hadn't you better reserve that for your trial?" asked the inspector.
"I may never be tried," he answered. You needn't look startled. It isn't suicide I am thinking of. Are you a doctor?" He turned his fierce dark eyes upon me as he asked this last question.
"Yes, I am," I answered.

Philip Craig paintings

Philip Craig paintings
Paul McCormack paintings
and cold. When we turned him over, the boots recognized him at once as being the same gentleman who had engaged the room under the name of Joseph Stangerson. The cause of death was a deep stab in the left side, which must have penetrated the heart. And now comes the strangest part of the affair. What do you suppose was above the murdered man?"
I felt a creeping of the flesh, and a presentiment of coming horror, even before Sherock Holmes answered.
"The word RACHE, written in letters of blood," he said,
"That was it," said Lestrade, in an awestruck voice, and we were all silent for a while.
There was something so methodical and so incomprehensible about the deeds of this unknown assassin, that it imparted a fresh ghastliness to his crimes. My nerves,
-58-which were steady enough on the field of battle, tingled as I thought of it.
"The man was seen," continued Lestrade. A milk boy, passing on his way to the dairy, happened to walk down the lane which leads from the mews at the back of the hotel. He noticed

George Inness paintings

George Inness paintings
George Frederick Watts paintings
why? Because there was no reliable test. Now we have the Sherlock Holmes's test, and there will no longer be any difficulty."
His eyes fairly glittered as he spoke, and he put his hand over his heart and bowed as if to some applauding crowd conjured up by his imagination.
"You are to be congratulated," I remarked, considerably surprised at his enthusiasm.
"There was the case of Von Bischoff at Frankfort last year. He would certainly have been hung had this test been in existence. Then there was Mason of Bradford, and the notorious Muller, and Lefevre of Montpellier, and Samson of New Orleans. I could name a score of cases in which it would have been decisive."
"You seem to be a walking calendar of crime," said Stamford with a laugh. "You might start a paper on those lines. Call it the "Police News of the Past.""
"Very interesting reading it might be made, too," remarked Sherlock Holmes, sticking a small piece of plaster over the prick on his finger. "I have to be careful," he continued, turning to me with a smile, "for I dabble with poisons a good deal."

Edmund Blair Leighton paintings

Edmund Blair Leighton paintings
Eugene de Blaas paintings
disguise yourself, your feelings were always noble and just; and in your heart, you thoroughly despised the persons who so assiduously courted you. There -- I have saved you the trouble of accounting for it; and really, all things considered, I begin to think it perfectly reasonable. To be sure, you knew no actual good of me -- but nobody thinks of that when they fall in love.''
``Was there no good in your affectionate behaviour to Jane while she was ill at Netherfield?''
``Dearest Jane! who could have done less for her? But make a virtue of it by all means. My good qualities are under your protection, and you are to exaggerate them as much as possible; and, in return, it belongs to me to find occasions for teazing and quarrelling with you as often as may be; and I shall begin directly by asking you what made you so unwilling to come to the point at last. What made you so shy of me, when you first called, and afterwards dined here? Why, especially, when you called, did you look as if you did not care about me?''
``Because you were grave and silent, and gave me no encouragement.''