Page 28 of 657

"I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that

there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the

garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses,

and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half-and-half, two

fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire

about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in

the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but

whose biographies I was compelled to listen to."

"And what of Irene Adler?" I asked.