my too abundant leisure time by studying all those branches of science
which might make me more efficient. Now and again cases came in my way
principally through the introduction of old fellow students, for during
my last years at the university there was a good deal of talk there
about myself and my methods. The third of these cases was that of the
Musgrave Ritual, and it is to the interest which was aroused by that
singular chain of events, and the large issues which proved to be at
stake, that I trace my first stride towards the position which I now
hold.

"Reginald Musgrave had been in the same college as myself, and I had
some slight acquaintance with him. He was not generally popular among
the undergraduates, though it always seemed to me that what was set down
as pride was really an attempt to cover extreme natural diffidence. In
appearance he was a man of an exceedingly aristocratic type, thin,
high-nosed, and large-eyed, with languid and yet courtly manners. He was
indeed a scion of one of the very oldest families in the kingdom, though
his branch was a cadet one which had separated from the Northern
Musgraves some time in the sixteenth century, and had established itself
in Western Sussex, where the manor house of Hurlstone is perhaps the
oldest inhabited building in the county. Something of his birthplace
seemed to cling to the man, and I never looked at his pale, keen face,
or the poise of his head without associating him with grey archways and
mullioned windows and all the venerable wreckage of a feudal keep. Once
or twice we drifted into talk, and I can remember that more than once he
expressed a keen interest in my methods of observation and inference.

"For four years I had seen nothing of him, until one morning he walked
into my room in Montague Street. He had changed little, was dressed like
a young man of fashion--he was always a bit of a dandy--and preserved
the same quiet, suave manner which had formerly distinguished him.

"'How has all gone with you, Musgrave?' I asked, after we had cordially
shaken hands.

"'You probably heard of my poor father's death,' said he. 'He was
carried off about two years ago. Since then I have, of course, had the
Hurlstone estates to manage, and as I am member for my district as well,
my life has been a busy one; but I understand, Holmes, that you are
turning to practical ends those powers with which you used to amaze us?'

"'Yes,' said I, 'I have taken to living