? ? ? ? "But are you sure of this, Holmes? How do you know that the woman is his wife?"
? ? ? ? "Because he so far forgot himself as to tell you a true piece of autobiography upon the occasion when he first met you, and I dare say he has many a time regretted it since. He was once a schoolmaster in the north of England. Now, there is no one more easy to trace than a schoolmaster. There are scholastic agencies by which one may identify any man who has been in the profession. A little investigation showed me that a school had come to grief under atrocious circumstances, and that the man who had owned it -- the name was different -- had disappeared with his wife. The descriptions agreed. When I learned that the missing man was devoted to entomology the identification was complete."
? ? ? ? The darkness was rising, but much was still hidden by the shadows.
? ? ? ? "If this woman is in truth his wife, where does Mrs. Laura Lyons come in?" I asked.
? ? ? ? "That is one of the points upon which your own researches have shed a light. Your interview with the lady has cleared the situation very much. I did not know about a projected divorce between herself and her husband. In that case, regarding Stapleton as an unmarried man, she counted no doubt upon becoming his wife.
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