“Mr. Holmes”, Lord Haversmith protested, “Undoubtely you will realize that it is already a great concession that I am receiving you in my home unannounced. Surely there is no need to trouble my daughter as well. She can know nothing of these matters.”

“Lord Haversmith, with all due respect, I am convinced that your daughter is a pivotal point in this whole affair. I have been to Soho Square talking to …”

“Damn him!” Lord Haversmith exclaimed angrily. “After all I have done for him! Does this young scoundrel have no consideration for my daughter’s reputation?”

“On the contrary. He was very correct and reticent where Miss Haversmith was concerned. This is why we came here to collect the pieces of the puzzle that are still missing.”

At this very moment the door to the library burst open and Ellyn Haversmith rushed into the room. She hurried to her father’s side, her cheeks flushed and her blue eyes unnaturally bright beneath the fringe of dark curls framing her delicate face. She sank down beside the chair her father was sitting in and imploringly raised her eyes to his face.

“Father, please forgive me!” she cried and took his large hand in her slender ones. “But I think we will have to tell these gentlemen everything and rely on their discretion!”

Lord Haversmith heaved a deep sigh and shook his head in resignation. “Well, so be it then. This charade has been going on long enough.”

He took a sip from the glass of brandy at his side and continued.

“Undoubtedly Dr. Minang, or George as we used to call him ever since he came to England, has told you his story? Yes? Very good. Then let me proceed to the heart of the matter immediately.

Yes, I did visit him before we went to the ball at the Smyths’. Ellyn was to wear the tiara this evening, but I kept it with me under the pretext that it would catch in the soft fabric of the hood of her cloak that she was wearing to protect her from the cold during our journey to the Smyths' house. We agreed that my wife would affix it to her coiffure before stepping into the ballroom.

So when I entered the Hospital, I quickly pried the diamond from its setting and wrapped it up in a small box I had brought for that purpose. Then I tried to bribe George into keeping away from Ellyn. I admit that this was a great mistake and I am ashamed of what I did.

I should have known George well enough to know that it would be a great insult to him. But I was desperate! The Smyths are important business partners and the match between Ellyn and Algernon had long been agreed upon. And I knew my daughter could have never been happy as the wife of a poor surgeon. It was just unthinkable.

So I gave him this unlucky diamond, wrapped up in its box. On my way back to the waiting coach, I handed the damaged tiara to Peterson, knowing that he would take care that it would finally get into my hands again. And I replaced it with a fake one. We have kept a paste tiara ever since the real one came into our possession, since there are occasions where the danger of a theft is too great. Ellyn was wearing it all evening without being aware of it not being genuine.

But I had not reckoned with Ellyn’s sharp eye. As soon as we were home again, she detected the fraud and raised the alarm. She had known that she was to wear the real tiara for the engagement ball and it was a complete mystery to her how it had suddenly turned into the fake one.

I could only calm her down by promising her to consult you, Mr. Holmes, as soon as possible. I was desperate enough to believe that I could put you off by some ruse. The only thing important to me at that moment was that Ellyn would never get to know what I had done, how I had betrayed her trust and tried to bribe an honest young man to keep away from her.

So I wrote the note to you. And before I had the chance to seal it, my son - who was as ignorant of this matter as Ellyn was - insisted upon adding an addendum listing the stops we took on our way, including the one in Soho Square.

Now, what I did not know…” He hesitated.

“What my father did not know”, Ellyn went on in his stead “was that George had received a messenger from me this very morning. I had sent little Benjamin to him at the hospital with a letter in which I asked him for an urgent meeting. But with the written reply Benjamin brought back this small box. And when I opened it and saw the diamond, it all became clear to me.

I was angry. I was so angry at my father, Mr. Holmes. At this moment, I could not think clearly. First I wanted to throw the whole thing into the fire. But then a thought came to me. In a fit of temper I wrapped up the gem in the box it came in and forcefully tore a piece of string from my crotcheting silk, knotted it into a kind of morse code message and tied it around the little parcel. This would teach my father a well-deserved lesson, I thought. I was sure you would ask him some very uncomfortable questions.

Then I sent Benjamin to deliver it to your house. And he promised me so faithfully that he would never reveal who really sent it.

As soon as Benjamin was gone, I knew I had done something very, very wrong. But I was still very confused and unsure what to do, when my father took me to see you, as he had promised the day before. Then seeing poor little Benjamin being carried into your hall in his injured state was too much for my already strained nerves.

You know, I had sent him out in secret and nobody about the house knew anything of it. Oldman, our coachman who has been with us from when he was a mere stable boy, observed Bennie and suspected him of having stolen something from the house. He tried to detain him, but the boy was too quick. He slipped his grasp and all that happened was that the piece of string came off the box.

In his confusion Benjamin delivered the box without the string. But being eager to fufill his mission, he went back as soon as he became aware of it. And this is when Oldham finally caught him. When the boy refused to tell him anything – as he had promised to me – Oldman tried to wrench the piece of string from him. Oldman is very strong, having worked in the stables and with the horses all his life, so maybe he underestimated his strength and handled Benjamin too roughly. But the boy was able to wiggle himself free a second time and despite his leg injury made it to your doorstep.

While you and Dr. Watson tended to him, I broke down and confessed everything to my father. This is why we had to leave so hurriedly.”

Lord Haversmith affectionately rested a hand on top of his daughter’s head while she was still kneeling beside his chair as he continued.

“We had both made our mistakes and we were ready to forgive each other. But I am afraid we panicked at the thought of what you may find out, Mr. Holmes. And then we committed our biggest error of judgement and made up this convoluted story of blackmail and impressed upon our staff, above all Rachel, her brother and Oldman that we had a bet to win and that they were to answer exactly as we had told them in case somebody came to ask them curious questions about their master's family. Whether they wondered about my eccentricity or thought that I had gone mad, I know not. But they were as good as they word.

You have to know, Mr. Holmes, that our servants are admirably loyal people. Please do not blame them for playing their part in this whole burlesque. They know nothing of the tale behind this whole affair. They simply did as they were told.

We are deeply sorry that we could, even for a moment, believe that such a ruse would fool you. But we were out of our minds at the time, and one lie lead to another, until we were inexorably caught in this web of deceit. If I could turn back the clock, believe me, I would."

He fell silent to take another sip from his brandy.

It rankled with me that I had been led astray so easily by the servants at my earlier visit to Lord Haversmith's house. And there was one question that was still nagging me.

"Lord Haversmith, there is a young boy in your employ, the brother of your tweeny Rachel. Does he have a nickname?"

Haversmith looked at me in surprise at this apparently unrelated question. "None that I am aware of".

"Oh, but I know!" Ellyn chimed in. "His sister is often calling him ratface, because - as she says - he has the habit of twiching his nose like a rat sniffing for food. But what does this have to do with all this?"

I was feeling triumphant while a rather stricken look passed over Holmes' countenance. It was a rare occasion for me to have been right when he was wrong. And what an amazing coincidence that we had come across two rats in this case, which were both completely unrelated to each other.

"Never mind the rat now!" Holmes demurred. "The question is, what are we to do now?"

Lord Haversmith cleared his throat before he spoke again. "If you were prepared to forget it all, I would pay you a very generous fee….”

He faltered, fell silent and shook his head.

“Ah, here I go again, trying to solve my problems with money. But please, Mr. Holmes, I am only thinking of my daughter…” He looked at my friend imploringly.

A tiny smile played around the corner of Holmes’ mouth as he answered.

“Lord Haversmith, I think this is indeed a matter that you need to resolve with your own conscience… and your daugther. Rest assured, that you can rely on my and“ he nodded in my direction “Dr. Watson’s discretion.“

We quietly exited the room as Ellyn was throwing herself into her father’s arms.

“Holmes” I asked my companion, as we were walking down the chilly street outside the Haversmith residence in search of a cab, “do you think Lord Haversmith will give in and let Miss Ellyn marry the noble but poor foreign doctor? Or will Miss Ellyn give in to her father’s wish?”

“Ah Watson, there is nobody like the Bard when it comes to describing the turmoil of human emotions: Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.”