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“ My work is its own reward , ” said Holmes . “ Please tell us everything . ” “ My name is Helen Stoner , and I live with my stepfather , Dr Grimesby Roylott . His family , the Roylotts of Stoke Moran , was once very rich , but now only the old house is left . My stepfather trained as a doctor and went to India . There , in a fit of anger , he beat his servant so badly that the man died . He spent a long time in prison for it , and afterwards he came back to England an angry , bitter man . “ In India he married my mother . She was still young , and her first husband was dead . My sister Julia and I were twins , and we were only two years old then . My mother had a good deal of money . She left it all to Dr Roylott while we lived with him . But if one of us married , that daughter was to get a certain amount of it each year . Soon after we came back to England , my mother was killed in a railway accident . Then Dr Roylott took us to live in the old family house at Stoke Moran . “ But soon a terrible change came over him . He shut himself up in the house and only came out to quarrel with people . He is very strong , and nobody can control him when he is angry . Last week he threw the village blacksmith into a stream . His only friends are some travelling people , families who live in caravans and move from place to place . He lets them camp on his land . He also has two animals from India , a cheetah , a kind of big wild cat , and a baboon , a large monkey . They walk freely around the grounds . “ Julia and I did not have much pleasure in life . No servant would stay with us . My sister was only thirty when she died , and yet her hair was already turning white , like mine . ” “ Your sister is dead , then ? ” VII . The Whistle in the Night “ She died two years ago , and it is her death that I want to tell you about . At our aunt’s house near Harrow , Julia met an officer , and they agreed to marry . My stepfather said nothing against the marriage . But two weeks before the wedding day , the terrible thing happened . ” “ Please be exact about the details , ” said Holmes , with his eyes half closed . “ Our three bedrooms are in one wing of the old house . The first is Dr Roylott’s , the second was my sister’s , and the third is mine . There are no doors between them , but they all open onto the same corridor . Their windows look out onto the lawn . “ That night my sister could smell the strong Indian cigars that my stepfather always smoked in his room . So she came into my room , and we talked about her wedding . At eleven o’clock she got up to leave , but at the door she stopped .
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