Holmes, when I heard a shocking story of how he had turned a
cat loose in an aviary, and I was so horrified at his brutal cruelty
that I would have nothing more to do with him.' She rummaged
in a bureau, and presently she produced a photograph of a
woman, shamefully defaced and mutilated with a knife. 'That is
my own photograph.' she said. 'He sent it to me in that state,
with his curse, upon my wedding morning.'
" 'Well,' said I, 'at least he has forgiven you now, since he
has left all his property to your son.'
" 'Neither my son nor I want anything from Jonas Oldacre,
dead or alive!' she cried, with a proper spirit. 'There is a God in
heaven, Mr. Holmes, and that same God who has punished that
wicked man will show, in His own good time, that my son's
hands are guiltless of his blood.'
"Well, I tried one or two leads, but could get at nothing
which would help our hypothesis, and several points which
would make against it. I gave it up at last, and off I went to
Norwood.
"This place, Deep Dene House, is a big modern villa of
staring brick, standing back in its own grounds, with a laurel-
clumped lawn in front of it.
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