{"id":5137,"date":"2013-10-22T06:30:48","date_gmt":"2013-10-22T06:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soundslikewish.wordpress.com\/?p=5137"},"modified":"2017-12-11T09:30:28","modified_gmt":"2017-12-10T22:30:28","slug":"journey-to-the-centre-great-middle-lines-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/?p=5137","title":{"rendered":"Journey to the centre:  Great middle lines &#8211; 14"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I was teaching migrant English using an abridged version of Arthur Conan Doyle&#8217;s <em>The Speckled Band.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>I enjoyed it so much, I sought out the original unabridged version and found some lines in the middle of the story that reveal Conan Doyle&#8217;s sharp wit and great sense of rhythm.\u00a0 It&#8217;s also clear at this point that Sherlock Holmes has the suspect worked out and now simply has to nail him.\u00a0 Here, Holmes&#8217;s associate, Dr Watson, records an exchange between Holmes and the suspect, who is screaming at him furiously:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;I know you, you scoundrel!\u00a0 I have heard of you before.\u00a0 You are Holmes, the meddler.&#8221;<br \/>\nMy friend smiled.<br \/>\n&#8220;Holmes, the busybody!&#8221;<br \/>\nHis smile broadened.<br \/>\n&#8220;Holmes, the Scotland-yard Jack-in-office!&#8221;<br \/>\nHolmes chuckled heartily.\u00a0 &#8220;Your conversation is most entertaining,&#8221; said he.\u00a0 &#8220;When you go out, close the door, for there is a decided draught.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10044\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10044\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10044\" src=\"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Sidney-Paget-speckled-band-300x228.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Sidney-Paget-speckled-band-300x228.jpg 300w, https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Sidney-Paget-speckled-band-768x584.jpg 768w, https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Sidney-Paget-speckled-band.jpg 865w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10044\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sidney Paget, 1892, illustration from The Speckled Band, courtesy Victorian Web.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*****<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday I was teaching migrant English using an abridged version of Arthur Conan Doyle&#8217;s The Speckled Band.\u00a0\u00a0I enjoyed it so much, I sought out the original unabridged version and found some lines in the middle of the story that reveal Conan Doyle&#8217;s sharp wit and great sense of rhythm.\u00a0 It&#8217;s also clear at this point &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/?p=5137\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Journey to the centre:  Great middle lines &#8211; 14&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[241,26,492,2,462,21,226,493,501,502,270],"class_list":["post-5137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-great-middle-lines","tag-19th-century-literature","tag-art","tag-arthur-conan-doyle","tag-literature","tag-middle-lines","tag-postaday","tag-postaday2013","tag-sherlock-holmes","tag-short-stories","tag-the-speckled-band","tag-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5137"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10043,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5137\/revisions\/10043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soundslikewish.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}