The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez is a story in the Return of Sherlock Holmes collection by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Doyle wrote fifty-six short Sherlock Holmes stories in total and four full length novels featuring the popular detective. All of the stories in the Return collection are narrated by the character of Dr. John Watson. One wild and stormy night in November of 1894 Inspector Stanley Hopkins calls upon Sherlock Holmes. He is investigating a murder and cannot establish a motive or make any sense of the events. The crime occurred in a country house called Yoxley Old Place which is owned by an elderly man named Professor Coram. The professor is an invalid who lives buried in his work. The household consisted of the old man, the housekeeper, a maid and a secretary. It was this secretary, Willoughby Smith, who had been murdered that morning. The maid, Susan Tarlton, had been hanging curtains in a bedroom when she heard Smiths familiar footsteps in the passage leading to the study. Moments later she heard a scream followed by a heavy thud. Susan ran into the study and found Willoughby Smith on the floor. He had been stabbed in the neck with a sealing knife that was part of the fittings of the professors desk. Hopkins later examined this wound and determined that it could not have been self inflicted. Smith had said the words the professor it was she, before expiring. The housekeeper, Mrs. Marker, ran to the study on hearing the cry and then went to check on the professor. He was in bed and still in his night clothes. Since he was not able to dress himself without assistance it seemed clear that he had not left his room during the time the crime took place. Hopkins gives Holmes a sketch of the house layout which shows how the study connects to the rest of the house via two corridors. One leads to the professors room and one leads out to the garden path. The professor maintained that nothing had been stolen and so robbery was dismissed as a motive. A pair of golden pince-nez were found clutched in the hand of the dead man and, since Smith had excellent eyesight, they could not have belonged to him. Holmes examines the glasses and can tell that they belong to a woman. The next day Holmes and Watson accompany Hopkins to Yoxley Old Place. Holmes notices a recent scratch on the study bureau which indicates a motive for the mysterious lady to have entered the house. Holmes theorises that whilst she was attempting to get into the bureau Willoughby Smith came in and tried to catch her in the act of theft. She then grabbed up the nearest object to strike him with and tragically, since it was a knife, the conflict was fatal. Holmes also takes note of the fact that the two passages which lead away from the study are lined with coconut matting. Hopkins introduces Holmes and Watson to the professor. Coram is a compulsive smoker and he urges his visitors to sample his cigarettes. Watson notices that Holmes is pacing up and down the room and smoking with extraordinary rapidity.

Holmes then speaks to the housekeeper, Mrs. Marker. She informs him that although the professors appetite is weakened by his heavy smoking he has eaten well that day. After lunch Hopkins, Holmes and Watson return to the professors room. Holmes states that since the lady had lost her pince-nez and since both corridors were lined with coconut matting it is likely that she took the wrong passage when fleeing from the study and ended up in the professors room. By smoking intensively that morning Holmes managed to create a layer of ash around the room. When he returns that afternoon he sees that the ash near the bookcase has been disturbed. This combined with the professors increase in appetite indicates that he is hiding the woman in his room. When Holmes announces his reasoning a bookcase swings open on a hinge and a woman rushes out into the room. She explains that she is the wife of the man now calling himself Professor Coram. They had married in Russia and been part of a revolutionary movement. There was trouble and Coram betrayed his wife and companions in order to save himself. Upon his confession, his comrades were sent either to the gallows or to Siberia. Coram also retained letters which would have proved the innocence of a man named Alexis and it was these that the old Russian lady had come to recover. The lady explains that she had chanced to meet Willoughby Smith on her way to the house and asked for directions. The young man related the incident to the professor when he returned home that day. This was the explanation behind his dying words. The confrontation between the lady and Smith happened as Holmes had surmised. When she fled down the wrong passageway she ended up in her husbands room. He wanted to give her up to the police but she threatened to disclose his new identity to the brotherhood seeking to punish him for his betrayal. She had planned to slip away when an opportunity presented itself. Suddenly the lady is overcome with pain and sickness. She reveals that she took poison before leaving her hiding place. She hands over the packet of letters that will exonerate Alexis and dies immediately afterward. Hopkins returns to headquarters with a successfully completed case. Holmes and Watson dutifully take the letters to the Russian Embassy.