"Last week he threw the local blacksmith over a wall into a stream, and it was only by paying all the money I was able to gather together that I was able to avoid another public incident. There are constantly such incidents, and he is often in trouble with the police and the courts. He has no friends at all, except some gypsies who he allows to camp on the weed-covered acres that are the grounds of the estate. Sometimes he would wander away with them for weeks on end. He also has a passion for Indian animals, including a cheetah and a baboon, both of which wander in the grounds and terrify the villagers almost as much as their master.

You can imagine from what I say that I and my poor sister Julia had very little pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with us and for most of the time we did all the work of the house. My sister was only thirty at the time of her death, but already her hair had begun to whiten, even as mine has."

"Your sister is dead then?" Holmes asked.

"She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which we had, there was little chance to meet other people. But when Julia went to visit an aunt over Christmas, she met a major of the marines and she became engaged to him. Our step-father made no objection, but within a fortnight of the wedding, a terrible event occurred, which deprived me of my sister and only companion."