This was gorgeous beyond words. The whole tone of it is so elegantly erotic. I concur with everyone this is endlessly quotable, but you had me at this bit:

I regarded Holmes as a form of weather then, fickle and wild. This was a roll of thunder from him, and there is a peculiar excitement one feels when lightning is in the air.

I can’t help feeling this is Holmes’s very elaborate ruse to get at that bottle of French cognac...