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eating and drinking habits, what he read, how he slept, his likes, dislikes,
passions, and hates all the urges and habits that made the man.
The first day, Thursday, I spent all morning with the colonel in his upstairs
study, sorting out correspondence and putting things to order. We ate lunch
together in the study, and afterwards he showed me, almost shyly, the first
pages of his book on Egypt in the years preceding the war. I promised to take
it home and study it, which seemed to please him. We then sat down to
dictation.
The first letters were to the managers of two manufacturing businesses,
concerned with the upcoming yearly reports. The third was a short letter to a
friend confirming a weekend bird-slaughtering party in September. ( Do much
shooting, Miss Small?  Why, no, Colonel.  Invigorating way to spend a
holiday. Of course, it takes some strength to use a bird-gun.  Does it,
Colonel? It sounds jolly fun. ) The fourth was to a bank manager, with details
for increasing the monthly allowance for the colonel s son, Gerald, when he
returned to Cambridge. (Thank God it s Cambridge, I thought, and not Oxford.
I m not exactly unknown there.) The fifth was of considerable interest to me,
addressed to a friend, concerning a comember of an organisation whose name set
off bells. It read:
Dear Brooks,
I ve been doing a lot of thinking about the little flap-up last week, and I
have come to the conclusion that I shall have to resign from the Friends. It
was a downright nasty trick Lawson played on me, keeping information from me
until the last minute like that. I was the chair of that committee, after all,
and it makes me look a damned ( I beg your pardon, Miss Small, change that to
confounded, would you please? ) fool not to know it was a woman I was meeting.
His supporters seem to have rallied round, and there s little chance he ll
resign. If he apologises, I might reconsider, but not otherwise.
My best to the missus, and hope to see you both on the twenty-fourth.
Dennis Edwards
I did not think his resignation threat referred to the Society of Friends.
Two other letters followed, but I recorded them mechanically, taking little
notice of their content other than seeing that they had nothing to do with my
interests.
 That s it for today, Miss Small. Do you want to read them back to me before
you type them?
 If you like, but I think they re quite clear.
 Didn t go too fast for you, did I? Let me see.
 No, not at all. Oh, do you read shorthand?
 I read a bit, but I don t recognise this. What is it?
I couldn t very well tell him the truth, that it was my own system, a
boustrophedonic code based on six languages, three alphabets, a variety of
symbols mathematical and chemical, and a hieroglyphic, designed to keep up
with even the fastest of lecturers and leave me time to record nonverbal data,
as well. It was totally illegible to anyone but Holmes, and even he found it
rough going.
 Oh, it s a system I learned in Oxford.
 Were you writing right to left?
 On alternate lines. Makes it much smoother, not having to jump back to the
beginning of the line each time.
 Well, live and learn. He handed me back my notebook.  Time for a little
something. Sherry, I think, Miss Small?
 Oh, Colonel Edwards, I don t think 
 Now look, young lady. His mock sternness was meant to be amusing.  I never
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drink alone if I can help it it s bad for the health. If you re going to be
around here, you ll have to learn to be sociable. Here. He handed me a
brimming wineglass, and I sighed to myself. Oh well, at least the quality was
decent.
An hour later, he stood up.  I must go, though I d dearly love to repeat last
night s dinner. You go on home, take my manuscript, and finish the letters
tomorrow. We ll go to dinner tomorrow night.
Not with Holmes due back, we wouldn t.  Oh, no, I couldn t 
 Tomorrow or Saturday, one or the other, I won t take a no.
 We ll, er, we ll talk about it tomorrow, Mary Small said weakly.
 Or tomorrow and Saturday both, if you like. Here s the manuscript. Didn t you
have a coat? Oh now, look at the rain out there. I ll have Alex run you home
and come back for me; it ll take me that long to climb into my stiff shirt
anyway. Protests were ignored as he stepped out and shouted orders to his
man.  That s settled, then. I don t like to think of you getting wet. Here s
your coat. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]