#talkative holmes

[materialofonebeing]

Holmes:  “Perhaps you would care to read the papers?”

Watson:  “Could you not give me the points?”

Holmes:  “That is very easily done.”

  -- The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger, in which Holmes’s summary of the points included the fineness of the lion, the name of the clown, and the constable’s next job.

[materialofonebeing]

“We had a pleasant little meal together, during which Holmes would talk about nothing but violins, narrating with great exultation how he had purchased his own Stradivarius […]. This led him to Paganini, and we sat for an hour over a bottle of claret while he told me anecdote after anecdote of that extraordinary man,” Watson, The Adventure of the Cardboard Box

I have such a soft spot for when Holmes can’t stop talking.  More.  Watson had heard the Stradivarius story at least three times, no doubt.

[materialofonebeing]

Talkative Holmes

“Never mind,” said he, chuckling to himself.  “The question now is about hœmoglobin. ”

“Perhaps it would be better if I gave you an account of the whole situation when that work is finished.”

[Seconds later.]  “Well, then, about that chasm.”

“I am only, of course, giving you the leading results now of my examination of the paper.  There were twenty-three other deductions which would be of more interest to experts than to you.”

[Minutes later.]  “I am sure that you cannot fail to be delighted with the traces of heredity shown in the p’s and in the tails of the g’s.  The absence of the i-dots […]”

“Holmes would talk about nothing but violins […]. This led him to Paganini, and we sat for an hour over a bottle of claret while he told me anecdote after anecdote of that extraordinary man.”

“Then, if you are not too sleepy, I will give you a sketch of what has happened, and of what remains to be done.”

[Holmes went on for pages.]

“But really, Watson, I am keeping you up, and I might just as well tell you all this on our way to Aldershot to-morrow.”

“Thank you, you have gone rather too far to stop.”