"Thick! It is intolerable."

"Open the window, then! You have been at your club all day, I
perceive."

"My dear Holmes!"

"Am I right?"

"Certainly, but how?"

He laughed at my bewildered expression. "There is a delightful
freshness about you, Watson, which makes it a pleasure to exercise
any small powers which I possess at your expense. A gentleman
goes forth on a showery and miry day. He returns immaculate in
the evening with the gloss still on his hat and his boots. He has
been a fixture therefore all day. He is not a man with intimate
friends. Where, then, could he have been? Is it not obvious?"

"Well, it is rather obvious."

"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance
ever observes. Where do you think that I have been?"

"A fixture also."

"On the contrary, I have been to Devonshire."

"In spirit?"