Rolling his eyes, Watson steps out of the room and shuts the door behind him. The latter action is carried out primarily in the name of keeping poor Mrs. Hudson from getting a good look at the havoc that one of her lodgers has wreaked.

The good woman enters the set of rooms with something of a wary expression, but she greets Watson at the door and has a tray with tea and scones that she sets on a side table in the drawing room. She pauses to speak to Watson for a moment; it is a pleasant enough conversation, polite as ever (he thanks her for the tea; she asks if he is expecting any patients today). These things are typically markedly more civil without Holmes's involvement.