“No, we can do nothing. We can only wait. If we go ourselves, the message might come in our absence, and delay be caused. You can do what you will, but I must remain on guard.”

“Then I shall run over to Camberwell and call upon Mrs. Cecil Forrester. She asked me to, yesterday.”

“On Mrs. Cecil Forrester?” asked Holmes, with the twinkle of a smile in his eyes.

“Well, of course Miss Morstan too. They were anxious to hear what happened.”

“I would not tell them too much,” said Holmes. “Women are never to be entirely trusted⁠—not the best of them.”

I did not pause to argue over this atrocious sentiment. “I shall be back in an hour or two,” I remarked.

169