Lady Frances Carfax
From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Fictional character.
In the Sherlock Holmes stories
- Lady Frances Carfax was the missing gentlewoman that Sherlock Holmes was engaged to find (LADY 205).
- She was the sole surviving child of the late Earl of Rufton, left with limited means and a set of old Spanish silver-and-diamond jewelry she carries everywhere (LADY 53).
- A precise correspondent who wrote her retired governess Miss Susan Dobney every two weeks, she suddenly stopped writing after leaving the Hôtel National in Lausanne, Switzerland (LADY 61).
- She later travelled with Dr. Shlessinger and his wife to London, who abducted her and hid her in a coffin. She was ultimately found by Sherlock Holmes chloroformed alive in an oversized coffin at 36 Poultney Square before being buried (LADY 551).
