“’Of course, I knew the man, so it wasn’t all
intuition. Still, I always make it a rule to investigate anything I feel like
investigating. I believe,’ he added, in a reminiscent tone, ‘I was a terror in
my nursery days. Anyhow, curious cases are rather a hobby of mine. In fact, I’m
not just being the perfect listener. I have deceived you. I have an ulterior
motive, said he, throwing off his side-whiskers and disclosing the well-known hollow
jaws of Mr. Sherlock Holmes.’
‘I was beginning to have my suspicions,’ said
the doctor after a short pause.
...
‘Quite right. It’s a silly kind of face, of
course, but rather disarming, don’t you think? I don’t know that I’d have chosen
it, but I do my best with it. I do hope it isn’t contracting a sleuth-like
expression, or anything unpleasant. This is the real sleuth – my friend
Detective-Inspector Parker of Scotland Yard. He’s the one who really does the
work. I make imbecile suggestions and he does the work of elaborately
disproving them. Then, by a process of elimination, we find the right
explanation, and the world says, ‘My [goodness], what intuition that young man has!’”
-- Dorothy L. Sayers
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