Sherlock Holmes Investigates

 

"While Dr Roylott was in India he married my mother, whose husband had just died. My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old when my mother married again. Soon after we returned to England, my mother died - she was killed eight years ago in a railway accident."

"She had a considerable amount of money, and this she left completely to Dr Roylott for while we lived with him, and we would receive a certain amount every year if we were married. When my mother died, Dr Roylott stopped trying to work in London as a doctor, and took us to live with him in his old family house at Stoke Moran The money which my mother had left was enough for everything we needed, and I thought we would be very happy."

"But a terrible change came over our step-father about this time. He did not make friends and visit our neighbours, who at first were very happy to see a Roylott returned to the old family house at Stoke Moran. Instead, he shut himself up in the house and almost never came out except to have furious arguements with everyone he met."

Vocabulary:

Twins: Two people born at the same time.
Considerable: Quite a large amount.
Leave: Here it means to give somebody something after you have died.
Step-father: A man who is married to a woman, but is not the father of her children.
About this time: At this time, but not exactly.
At first: At the beginning.
Furious: Very angry.