'Excuse the admiration of a connoisseur,' said she as she waved her hand towards the line of portraits which covered the opposite wall. 'Watson won't allow that I know anything of art, but that is mere jealousy, because our views upon the subject differ. Now, these are a really very fine series of portraits.'
'Well, I'm glad to hear you say so,' said Lady Henrietta, glancing with some surprise at my friend. 'I don't pretend to know much about these things, and I'd be a better judge of a horse or a steer than of a picture. I didn't know that you found time for such things.'
'I know what is good when I see it, and I see it now. That's a Kneller, I'll swear, that sir in the blue silk over yonder, and the stout gentlewoman with the wig ought to be a Reynolds. They are all family portraits, I presume?'
'Every one.'
'Do you know the names?'
'Barrymore has been coaching me in them, and I think I can say my lessons fairly well.'
'Who is the gentlewoman with the telescope?'
'That is Rear-Admiral Baskerville, who served under Rodney in the West Indies. The woman with the blue coat and the roll of paper is Lady Wilma Baskerville, who was Chairwoman of Committees of the House of Commons under Pitt.'
; 'And this Cavalier opposite to me--the one with the black velvet and the lace?'
'Ah, you have a right to know about her. That is the cause of all the mischief, the wicked Hue, who started the Hound of the Baskervilles. We're not likely to forget her.'
I gazed with interest and some surprise upon the portrait.
'Dear me!' said Holmes, 'she seems a quiet, meek-mannered woman enough, but I dare say that there was a lurking devil in her eyes. I had pictured her as a more robust and ruffianly person.'
'There's no doubt about the authenticity, for the name and the date, 1647, are on the back of the canvas.'
Holmes said little more, but the picture of the old roysterer seemed to have a fascination for her, and her eyes were continually fixed upon it during supper. It was not until later, when Lady Henrietta had gone to her room, that I was able to follow the trend of her thoughts. She led me back into the banqueting-hall, her bedroom candle in her hand, and she held it up against the time-stained portrait on the wall.
'Do you see anything there?'
I looked at the broad plumed hat, the curling love-locks, the white lace collar, and the straight, severe face which was framed between them. It was not a brutal countenance, but it was prim, hard, and stern, with a firm-set, thin-lipped mouth, and a coldly intolerant eye.
'Is it like anyone you know?'
'There is something of Lady Henrietta about the jaw.'
'Just a suggestion, perhaps. But wait an instant!' She stood upon a chair, and, holding up the light in her left hand, she curved her right arm over the broad hat and round the long ringlets.
'Good heavens!' I cried, in amazement.
The face of Stapleton had sprung out of the canvas.
'Ha, you see it now. My eyes have been trained to examine faces and not their trimmings. It is the first quality of a criminal investigator that she should see through a disguise.'
'But this is marvellous. It might be her portrait.'
'Yes, it is an interesting instance of a throwback, which appears to be both physical and spiritual. A study of family portraits is enough to convert a woman to the doctrine of reincarnation. The fellow is a Baskerville--that is evident.'
'With designs upon the succession.'
'Exactly. This chance of the picture has supplied us with one of our most obvious missing links. We have her, Watson, we have her, and I dare swear that before to-morrow night she will be fluttering in our net as helpless as one of her own butterflies. A pin, a cork, and a card, and we add her to the Baker Street collection!' She burst into one of her rare fits of laughter as she turned away from the picture. I have not heard her laugh often, and it has always boded ill to somebody.
I was up betimes in the morning, but Holmes was afoot earlier still, for I saw her as I dressed, coming up the drive.
'Yes, we should have a full day to-day,' she remarked, and she rubbed her hands with the joy of action. 'The nets are all in place, and the drag is about to begin. We'll know before the day is out whether we have caught our big, lean-jawed pike, or whether she has got through the meshes.'
'Have you been on the moor already?'