had not been a sergeant-major, of course. I understand he was only the major’s batman in the Army but followed his master into civilian life, as a valet. He had a long face, rather red, as if he drank too much or was sunburnt from service in foreign parts. His features were straight. His eyes seemed hard as stone. I remember thinking that sapphires so hard would never melt into the sea as they did in Lord Tennyson’s poetry! His mouth was wide, but so far as I could tell his lips were thin. He wore—they say he often wore—the same fancy waistcoat. Mrs Grose, the housekeeper, told me that Quint frequently wore garments stolen from his absent master. This waistcoat might be one of them.”
“We will also leave Lord Tennyson and the waistcoat to one side,” said Holmes. “How far from the tower were you standing?”
“Twenty-five feet, I daresay—perhaps thirty.”
“Were you looking straight up at him with your head held back or was it a more level view from farther off?”
“I stared straight at him. At a little distance.”
“You must have been at a sufficient distance to see him walk across the platform of the tower when he disappeared. Yet you could tell his lips were thin and his eyes hard? Now then, there were three floors of the house, the tower platform and the battlements—forty feet or more vertically. Add to that your horizontal distance from it. Not less than thirty feet, if you had a view of the direction in which he walked away.”
“Perhaps that was so, Mr Holmes.”
“As a governess, Miss Temple, I daresay you are familiar enough with the theorem of Pythagoras to teach it to your pupils. Will you take it from me, as a matter of geometry, that such dimensions would put the two of you about fifty feet apart?”
“I must accept that, if you say it is so.”
“I do say it, madam. Let us proceed. This man was standing with his face to the east, staring out at you, while the light was dying in the west behind him. His face was red? Was not his face in shadow, though? And could you tell in such poor light, at such a distance too, that his eyes were blue and his lips were thin?”
“Perhaps his lips were not thin. His whiskers hid them, but that was my impression.”
I was uneasy at this sceptical cross-examination, but Miss Temple still held her own. She would have done well in the witness-box, after all.
“Your impression alone will not quite do,” said Holmes gently.
For the first time, she showed a little irritation with him.
“I saw enough of him in the evening light, Mr Holmes, to know that he was the same man I saw close up, some weeks later, through the dining-room window by lamplight. Mrs Grose and I were setting out for Sunday evening service. The carriage was waiting at the terrace steps and I went into the room just to fetch a pair of gloves I had forgotten. The man who had been on the tower was on the terrace, staring at me through the glass without moving. That night I gave Mrs Grose the description I have just given to you. I was close enough to him for that.”
“How far is the church from the house?”
“It is on the estate, about ten minutes’ walk, but it was customary to take the carriage.”
“And at what time is Evensong?”
“Half-past six.”
“This was in early November, I understand, and therefore after dark?”
“It was.”
“How many lights were burning in the dining-room?”
“The central gasolier was lit but turned low when we left the room. The wall mantels had been extinguished. They would not be lit until we returned for supper.”
“Reflection from the half-lit gasolier, through the window and onto the terrace, was enough to show you the man’s features on such a dark November evening?”
“I first ran towards the window, Mr Holmes. He did not move. Then I ran out into the hallway and out at the main door. He had gone. I am no liar, sir!”
This was a more dangerous exchange, but Holmes inclined his head courteously.
“Indeed you are no liar, Miss Temple. A liar would insist that she was far closer to the man on the tower at the first encounter. On the second, she would probably have told me that all the lights in the dining-room were fully lit and shining onto the terrace, where the man stood. She certainly would not have omitted accidentally, as you have done, that there would also be a lamp on the terrace itself—as well as on the carriage—to light you on your way. It must have been bright enough to show the way down the steps to the conveyance which would take you to Evensong.”
She looked down with her closed fist lightly to her lips as if she might weep. Holmes forestalled her.
“I have dealt with a good many liars, Miss Temple, and I am so far satisfied that you are a truthful young woman. I cannot yet say that your visitor on the tower or at the window was a creature from the realms of darkness. That you saw a figure of some kind is evident to me.”
“Thank you,” she said softly.
My friend resumed.
“What else did you see on this second occasion?”
“There was no one on the terrace by the time I reached it, no sign of an intruder. Not a footprint in the earth, not a gate nor door swinging open. Having seen him twice, I still thought he was an ordinary trespasser. It was only after this second appearance that I told Mrs Grose. She replied that I had exactly described Peter Quint—and that Quint had been dead for a year. Until then I had not known our housekeeper well enough to confide in her. I had suspected that this fellow might be a hanger-on of one of the women at the house. Or perhaps the servants were playing a game to frighten me. There is often a grudge against a poor governess. She is in some ways their mistress—able to give them orders—but not truly mistress of the house. They are quick to complain that she has got ‘above herself.’”
“They did not complain in your case?”
“No. They were all kind to me.”
“Excellent,” said Holmes, and his mood changed at once. Miss Temple’s answers had unquestionably been straight and true. To me she seemed an honest witness, however deluded. And still there was a simple strength in her. Without that, we might have faced a catastrophe as she gave way under questioning. She now looked at us both and continued.
“Mrs Grose told me how Quint had left the village tavern one winter night and was found dead on the road next morning with a fearful gash across his head. The local coroner from Abbots Langley described the injuries to the jury. From where the dead man lay it was plain that he lost his footing and went headlong. His skull had struck the edge of the parapet over the stream. The sharp ice cut him deeply. After that, Mrs Grose talked to me of the fellow’s secret vices, his drinking and his affairs with the village girls. Worst of all, he was too free with Miles. It was outrageous that a promiscuous brute like he should act as the little boy’s tutor and guide!”
“And what of Miss Jessel?” I asked.
She paused, as if to gather her strength after the outburst.
“A week or so later I was walking with Flora one afternoon, by the lake. A woman appeared on an opposite bank, the wooded island at the far end. She was too far off for anyone to reach her before she disappeared among the trees again. At first I supposed she must be a servant but then I saw by her clothes she could not be. She was dressed in shabby black mourning, not a maidservant’s uniform. Her hair was dark. I thought her beautiful, but in an unearthly way. A beautiful corpse, if there can be such a thing. Make no mistake, Dr Watson, I saw her as plainly as I see you now, but she was not looking at me. Her eyes were on the little girl, Flora. In that moment they became such awful eyes, Mr Holmes, filling gradually with a fury of evil triumph.”
“Though she was dead, you thought you knew who she must be?”
“I felt sure, even before I described her to Mrs Grose. I suppose I sound mad to you, do I not? But what was more important, I knew that I was merely a witness. She had not come for me. Like Quint, she had come for the children. Mrs Grose had only told me that Miss Jessel had been as infamous in her lifetime as Quint. In the end, she had gone on a long holiday and had died at her father’s home. That was told to Mrs Grose by Major Mordaunt in confidence, for fear her death should upset the other servants.”
“And then Miles was sent back from school?”
