#acdq

[holmesguy]

Watson: Do you mean to say that you read my train of thoughts from my features?

Holmes: Your features and especially your eyes.

(The Adventure of the Cardboard Box)

[holmesguy]

When they met...

“How are you?” he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”

“How on earth did you know that?” I asked in astonishment. 

“Never mind,” said he, chuckling to himself. 

He seized me by the coat-sleeve in his eagerness, and drew me over to the table at which he had been working.

“Ha! ha!” he cried, clapping his hands, and looking as delighted as a child with a new toy. “What do you think of that?”

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. 

“I have to be careful,” he continued, turning to me with a smile, “for I dabble with poisons a good deal.” He held out his hand as he spoke, and I noticed that it was all mottled over with similar pieces of plaster, and discoloured with strong acids.

Sherlock Holmes seemed delighted at the idea of sharing his rooms with me. “I have my eye on a suite in Baker Street,” he said, “which would suit us down to the ground. You don’t mind the smell of strong tobacco, I hope?”

Just a few quotes to encapsulate the first few minutes of Holmes and Watson meeting each other. The line “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive” was preceded by Holmes gripping Watson’s hand surprisingly tightly, and was not followed by a series of deductions but instead by Holmes immediately and eagerly pulling Watson into his work, asking Watson’s opinions and holding his hand out to him, the entire conversation filled with laughter, delight, smiles, and sparkling eyes.

[holmesguy]

his nimble fingers were flying here, there, and everywhere, feeling, pressing, unbuttoning, examining,

John Watson, observing the hands of Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet

[holmesguy]

I never thought I should have seen Cullingworth again, but fate has brought us together. I have always had a kindly feeling for him, though I feel that he used me atrociously. Often I have wondered whether, if I were placed before him, I should take him by the throat or by the hand.

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Stark Munro Letters (1895)

[holmesguy]

Holmes talking about Watson in The Lion’s Mane.

[holmesguy]

That time Watson was gonna call the cops unless Holmes shared his adventure with him

[holmesguy]

With whom, then, should I sleep? perhaps with thee, And gaze into those eyes, those deep sad eyes, Feeling the drowsy touch of thy vast wings. Thy brother Sleep I know, with him have lain Many a night, forgetting all the day And every pain in that sweet comradeship. Ah, he is younger, gay, capricious oft, Dwelling with some for hours, or else away, As with my friend, for lonely days and nights. But thou, angel of night, youth of the silent glance, All sleep with thee, but yet how diversely, And but the very few hail thee with gladness. Say would there be a telling of our tryst, A wild Greek meeting with my spirit free, Or would it be but rest, a heavy sleeping? I fancy I could echo sighs with thee, Picturing all the sights that thou hast seen, And flying in my thought where thou hast flown.

George Cecil Ives, “With Whom, Then, Should I Sleep?” (1896)

[holmesguy]

By the time of The Speckled Band it is noteworthy that the intimacy between Watson and Holmes has very considerably developed. Watson is no longer 'Doctor' but 'My dear Watson'; Holmes's clients are bidden to speak freely in front of his 'intimate friend and associate'; if there is danger afoot, Watson has but one thought: Can he be of help? 'Your presence', Holmes told him in the case of the Speckled Band, 'might be invaluable."Then', comes the quick reply, 'I shall certainly come.'

Sir Sydney Castle Roberts, Doctor Watson, 1931