The Niece's Story
Dec. 30th, 2002 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepennySo I'm rereading two books at once, as is my wont, and came for the nth time across this line in Whose Body? (Lord Peter speaking, of course):
'I knew a man once, Parker, who let a world-famous poisoner slip through his fingers because the machine on the Underground took nothing but pennies. There was a queue at the booking office and the man at the barrier stopped him, and while they were arguing about accepting a five-pound note (which was all he had) for a two-penny ride to Baker Street, the criminal had sprung into a Circle train, and was next heard of in Constantinople, disguised as an elderly Church of England clergyman touring with his niece.'
(WB, 36)
This is really every bit as good as some of Arthur Conan Doyle's throwaways (and I don't think the fact that she worked Baker Street into the story is an accident). Well, okay, not as good as the Giant Rat of Sumatra, but nothing is. What bugs me about this one, every single time, is that there's a story there, and I can't find it. Same way I feel about my current Challenge necklace from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elisem (*weeps*), only worse because in this case even more damn elusive.
The niece is there. She has a story she wants to tell. But I can't hear it.
WORKS CITED
Sayers, Dorothy L. Whose Body? 1923. NY: Avon Books, 1961. p. 36.
'I knew a man once, Parker, who let a world-famous poisoner slip through his fingers because the machine on the Underground took nothing but pennies. There was a queue at the booking office and the man at the barrier stopped him, and while they were arguing about accepting a five-pound note (which was all he had) for a two-penny ride to Baker Street, the criminal had sprung into a Circle train, and was next heard of in Constantinople, disguised as an elderly Church of England clergyman touring with his niece.'
(WB, 36)
This is really every bit as good as some of Arthur Conan Doyle's throwaways (and I don't think the fact that she worked Baker Street into the story is an accident). Well, okay, not as good as the Giant Rat of Sumatra, but nothing is. What bugs me about this one, every single time, is that there's a story there, and I can't find it. Same way I feel about my current Challenge necklace from
elisem (*weeps*), only worse because in this case even more damn elusive.The niece is there. She has a story she wants to tell. But I can't hear it.
WORKS CITED
Sayers, Dorothy L. Whose Body? 1923. NY: Avon Books, 1961. p. 36.
