How sweet the morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo. Now the red rim of the sun pushes itself over the London cloud-bank. It shines on a good many folk, but on none, I dare bet, who are on a stranger errand than you and I. How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!

He had maintained a platonic relationship with Jean while his first wife was still alive out of loyalty to her. A sequel to A Study in Scarlet was commissioned and The Sign of the Four appeared in Lippincott's Magazine in February 1890 under agreement with the Ward Lock company. Conan Doyle fathered five children.

He was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories plays romances poetry non-fiction and historical novels.