It seemed to Holmes that in the fifty weeks since that birthday, Holmes and Watson’s friendship had grown in strength and intensity, even as Holmes’s ever-tenuous grasp of the public’s ways of interacting had dwindled now, he hardly ventured to entertain any guests or visitors—or even clients—unless Watson were with him. At times, he felt himself liking his guests, and wished he could have a chance to get to know them better—he tried to be funny, to be winning—to make a good impression the first time so that later times would be easier; however, he simultaneous kept a mental running commentary of criticism, and each attempt was decried as a pathetic failure. They always seemed grateful and usually Holmes was capable of solving their minor mysteries with ease, but unless they needed more help later, they never paid any further calls on Sherlock: confirmation, to Holmes’s subconscious mind, that he had indeed failed to win them over.
Holmes relied on Watson to help smooth matters over. When Holmes got tongue-tied, Watson was always able to sense the perfect expression to speak out—at least, if he understood what Holmes had in mind, and that was variable, as Holmes often did not share his thoughts before he was absolutely certain he was right. Holmes was, in fact, anxious not to lose face with John, and in some cases, Holmes’s string of conclusions, assumptions, and such were mere hunches—so very fragile that he dared not tell John; Sherlock had a practiced poker-face and did have adequate confidence in his own ability to act as if he were in control and to think of a course of action in case of failure. Further, Holmes cultivated a somewhat cold air of abstraction and aloofness in order to discourage excessive chatter. At any rate, John was so good with visitors, and presumably, with his patients, that he could always help to make them more at ease, easily compensating for Holmes’s taciturnity.
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