A Scandal in Bohemia
Dr. Watson
recounts an adventure that started on 20 March 1888. While the
currently married Watson is paying Holmes a visit, a masked visitor
arrives, introducing himself as Count Kramm, an agent for a wealthy
client. Holmes quickly deduces that he is in fact Wilhelm Gottsreich
Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein and the hereditary
King of Bohemia. Realizing Holmes has seen through his guise, the King admits this and tears off his mask.
It transpires that the King is to become engaged to Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meiningen, a young
Scandinavian princess. However, five years before the events of the story he had a liaison with an American opera singer,
Irene Adler, while she was serving as
prima donna
of the Imperial Opera of Warsaw, who has since then retired to London.
Fearful that should the strictly principled family of his fiancée learn
of this impropriety, the marriage would be called off, he had sought to
regain letters and a photograph of Adler and himself together, which he
had sent to her during their relationship as a token. The King's agents
have tried to recover the photograph through sometimes forceful means,
burglary, stealing her luggage, and waylaying her. An offer to pay for
the photograph and letters was also refused. With Adler threatening to
send them to his future in-laws, which the King presumes is intended to
prevent him from marrying any other woman, he makes the incognito visit
to Holmes to request his help in locating and obtaining the photograph.
The photograph is described to Holmes as a
cabinet (5½ by 4 inches) and therefore too bulky for a lady to carry upon her person. The King gives Holmes £1,000 (£100,500 today
[1])
to cover any expenses, while saying that he "would give one of [his]
provinces" to have the photograph back. Holmes asks Dr. Watson to join
him at
221B Baker Street at 3 o'clock the following afternoon.
The next morning, Holmes goes out to Adler's house, disguised as a
drunken out-of-work groom. He discovers from the local stable workers
that Adler has a gentleman friend, the barrister Godfrey Norton of the
Inner Temple,
who calls at least once a day. On this particular day, Norton comes to
visit Adler, and soon afterwards takes a cab to the Church of St. Monica
in
Edgware Road. Minutes later, the lady herself gets into her
landau,
bound for the same place. Holmes follows in a cab and goes into the
church, where he is unexpectedly asked to be a witness to Norton and
Adler's wedding. Curiously, they go their separate ways after the
ceremony.
Meanwhile, Watson has been waiting for Sherlock to arrive, and when
Sherlock Holmes finally does deliver himself back to Baker Street, he
starts laughing. Watson is confused and asks what is so funny, Sherlock
then recounts his tale and comments he thought the situation and
position he was in at the wedding was amusing. He also asks whether or
not Watson is willing to participate in a scheme to figure out where the
picture is hidden in Adler's house. Watson agrees, and Holmes changes
into another disguise as a clergyman. The duo depart Baker Street for
Adler's house.
When Holmes and Watson arrive, a group of jobless men meander
throughout the street. When Adler's coach pulls up, Holmes enacts his
plan. A fight breaks out between the men on the street over who gets to
help Adler. Holmes rushes into the fight to protect Adler, and is
seemingly struck and injured. Adler takes him into her sitting room,
where Holmes motions for her to have the window opened. As Holmes lifts
his hand, Watson recognizes a pre-arranged signal and tosses in a
plumber's
smoke rocket. While smoke billows out of the building, Watson shouts "FIRE!" and the cry is echoed up and down the street.
Holmes slips out of Adler's house and tells Watson what he saw. As
Holmes expected, Adler rushed to get her most precious possession at the
cry of "fire"—the photograph of herself and the King. Holmes was able
to see that the picture was kept in a recess behind a sliding panel just
above the right
bell pull.
He was unable to steal it at that moment, however, because the coachman
was watching him. He explains all this to Watson before being bid
good-night by a familiar-sounding youth, who promptly manages to get
lost in the crowd.
The following morning, Holmes explains his findings to the King. When
Holmes, Watson, and the King arrive at Adler's house, her elderly
maidservant informs them that she has hastily departed for the
Charing Cross railway station.
Holmes quickly goes to the photograph's hiding spot, finding a photo of
Irene Adler in an evening dress and a letter dated midnight and
addressed to him. In the letter, Adler tells Holmes that he did very
well in finding the photograph and fooling her with his disguises. She
also reveals that she posed as the youth who bid Holmes good-night.
Adler has fled England with Norton, an honourable man, adding that she
will not compromise the King and has kept the photo only to protect
herself against any further action the King might take.
The King gushes over how amazing Adler is, saying "Would she not have
made an admirable queen? Is it not a pity she was not on my level?"
Holmes replies scathingly that Miss Adler is indeed on a much different
level from the King (by which he means higher—an implication lost on the
King). When he asks Holmes how he wants to be paid, Holmes asks for the
photograph of Adler. Holmes keeps it as a souvenir of the cleverness of
Irene Adler, and how he was beaten by a woman's wit.
Watson has already called her "the late Irene Adler", confirming her
death sometime in the intervening three years (between the story's
setting and the publication of "A Scandal in Bohemia"). Watson also
tells that, since their meeting, Holmes always refers to her by the
honorable title of "the woman".
