Irene Adler

I quote the beginning of the text ' A Scandal in Bohemia' by Sir A.C.Doyle
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"TO SHERLOCK HOLMES she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer–excellent for drawing the veil from men’s motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory."
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Interestingly, at the end of the story , Holmes asks the King of Bohemia for the picture of Irene Adler that she has left behind as his only compensation for his efforts. To sum it up in Doyle's words : "And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were beaten by a woman’s wit. He used to make merry over the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman.

For Holmes always referred her to as ”the woman” (please note the definite article being used)
I somehow felt this when yesterday I was listening to Madonna's lyics in "Like a Prayer"

"When you call my name it's like a little prayer I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there In the midnight hour I can feel your power Just like a prayer you know I'll take you there "

Now coming to Me,Myself and Irene.I knew of such a senorita who would like to be preceived on the contrary.She would absolutely detest her name being taken as a prayer and abominated the fact that somebody worships her. Her character's leitmotif seemed to me like something on the lines of "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks.(I'm a bitch, I'm a loverI'm a child, I'm a motherI'm a sinner, I'm a saint,I do not feel ashamed).Enough said.I'll get to the point.

All this is to provide evidence to the fact that Love essentially is non-linear in character.