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was in the year '95 that a combination of events, into which I need not enter,
caused Mr. Sherlock Holmes and myself to spend some weeks in one of our great
university towns, and it was during this time that the small but instructive adventure
which I am about to relate befell us. It will be obvious that any details which
would help the reader exactly to identify the college or the criminal would be
injudicious and offensive. So painful a scandal may well be allowed to die out.
With due discretion the incident itself may, however, be described, since it serves
to illustrate some of those qualities for which my friend was remarkable. I will
endeavour, in my statement, to avoid such terms as would serve to limit the events
to any particular place, or give a clue as to the people concerned. We
were residing at the time in furnished lodgings close to a library where Sherlock
Holmes was pursuing some laborious researches in early English charters -- researches
which led to results so striking that they may be the subject of one of my future
narratives. Here it was that one evening we received a visit from an acquaintance,
Mr. Hilton Soames, tutor and lecturer at the College of St. Luke's. Mr. Soames
was a tall, spare man, of a nervous and excitable temperament. I had always known
him to be restless in his manner, but on this particular occasion he was in such
a state of uncontrollable agitation that it was clear something very unusual had
occurred. "I
trust, Mr. Holmes, that you can spare me a few hours of your valuable time. We
have had a very painful incident at St. Luke's, and really, but for the happy
chance of your being in town, I should have been at a loss what to do."
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