SISTER RONDER (VEIL)
by Frank Coffman

"You're mid-aged, Mrs. Ronder. Your face is a mess So you hide it behind a dark veil. You sent for great Sherlock your sins to confess And let Justice or Mercy prevail." "Ah but when I was young true beauty was mine; My poverty's what was the matter. So I married a man with a face like a swine, But my lover hub's brains he did splatter "With a club made of lead with nails in the head. But he fled when the lion got free, It attacked me you see, hence this visage of dread And this veil and this cloister for me." "Te absolvo," said Holmes, consulting his tomes. "I think you have paid for your sin. Give that acid to me; it shan't set you free! Pardon me, but was that just a grin?"