Irene Adler

Pliny the Elder is offended.

Of course I understand that the woman the old man sees is you, he says. That is clear enough. But my question is, who did he imagine you to be?

Oh I see, I say. Sorry Pliny. I thought you were a big fan of Sherlock Holmes. Surely you remember Irene Adler?

Pliny's face lights up. Irene Adler! The only woman ever to have outwitted Sherlock Holmes!

Yes Pliny. Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory. The woman Sherlock Holmes admired most. The woman he referred to ever after as The Woman.

An honour, says Pliny, for Holmes was not a whole-souled admirer of womankind.

Oh, you do know your Sherlock Holmes after all! Do you remember what the King of Bohemia was supposed to have said of Irene Adler?

That she had the face of the most beautiful of women and the mind of the most resolute of men.

Yes, and that's who the old man thought I was.

This is where I begin to have a problem, says Pliny.