.

　　1926

　　SHERLOCK HOLMES

　　THE ADVENTURE OF THE RETIRED COLOURMAN

　　by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

　　Sherlock Holmes was in a melancholy and philosophic mood thatmorning. His alert practical nature was subject to such reactions."Did you see him?" he asked.

　　"You mean the old fellow who has just gone out?"

　　"Precisely."

　　"Yes, I met him at the door."

　　"What did you think of him?"

　　"A pathetic, futile, broken creature."

　　"Exactly, Watson. Pathetic and futile. But is not all lifepathetic and futile? Is not his story a microcosm of the whole? Wereach. We grasp. And what is left in our hands at the end? A shadow.Or worse than a shadow- misery."

　　"Is he one of your clients?"

　　"Well, I suppose I may call him so. He has been sent on by the Yard.Just as medical men occasionally send their incurables to a quack.They argue that they can do nothing more, and that whatever happensthe patient can be no worse than he is."

　　"What is the matter?"

　　Holmes took a rather soiled card from the table. "Josiah Amberley.He says he was junior partner of Brickfall and Amberley, who aremanufacturers of artistic materials. You will see their names uponpaint-boxes. He made his little pile, retired from business at the ageof sixty-one, bought a house at Lewisham, and settled down to restafter a life of ceaseless grind. One would think his future wastolerably assured."