ok ok let me see if i can escape the long, brittle fingers of death long enough to talk about this
so holmes offers watson a pinch of snuff, and watson points out that the snuff box is a bit ostentatious for holmes’ taste. ok. that’s fair. then four sentences later he’s pointing out that holmes is also now wearing a “brilliant” ring that “sparkled upon his finger,” which holmes goes on to explain as a gift from the reigning family of holland.
but watson just told us that holmes isn’t the kind of man who would own a gold, jeweled snuff box, so why would we believe that he would actually be the sort to go about wearing a brilliant, sparkling ring? seems like that’s not really his style. unless maybe that ring had some sort of significantly sentimental value. sure, holmes might want a memento to remember a case well-solved, but is he really the type to wear around a fancy ring just because a client gave it to him?
and then why is watson even bringing up the ring anyway? it doesn’t have any bearing on the story. they weren’t discussing it before watson brings it up. he just mentions it for no reason at all. almost like he wanted to bring attention to it. kinda like he was excited by the prospect of a ring on holmes’ finger. maybe, just maybe, like he was proud to see it there.
now i don’t know about you, but if i see a friend sporting a sparkly new ring, there’s one place my mind automatically goes. add in watson mentioning it for no real reason, as if he wants to show it off, and i think what you’ve got here is a watson who has proposed to his holmes.
now of course it has to be explained away--gift from a client of course, can’t possibly tell you more about that case--but why else would holmes suddenly be wearing a ring? why would watson bring it up, even if he can’t tell us anything about its origin?
these boys are engaged.
