conclusion to the test. How did it turn out ?
Your ladyship consented ; Mr. Blake consented ;
Mr. Ablewhite consented. Miss Verinder alone
stopped the whole proceeding by refusing
pointblank. That result satisfied me that my view
was the right one. If your ladyship and Mr.
Betteredge persist in not agreeing with me, you
must be blind to what happened before you this
very day. In your hearing, I told the young
lady that her leaving the house (as things were
then) would put an obstacle in the way of my
recovering her jewel. You saw yourselves that
she drove off in the face of that statement.
You saw yourselves that, so far from forgiving
Mr. Blake for having done more than all the
rest of you to put the clue into my hands, she
publicly insulted Mr. Blake, on the steps of her
mother's house. What do these things mean?
If Miss Verinder is not privy to the suppression
of the Diamond, what do these things
mean?"

This time he looked my way. It was downright
frightful to hear him piling up proof after
proof against Miss Rachel, and to know, while
one was longing to defend her, that there was no
disputing the truth of what he said. I am
(thank God!) constitutionally superior to reason.
This enabled me to hold firm to my lady's
view, which was my view also. This roused my
spirit, and made me put a bold face on it before
Sergeant Cuff. Profit, good friends, I beseech
you, by my example. It will save you from
many troubles of the vexing sort. Cultivate a
superiority to reason, and see how you pare the
claws of all the sensible people when they try to
scratch you for your own good!

Finding that I made no remark, and that my
mistress made no remark, Sergeant Cuff
proceeded. Lord! how it did enrage me to notice
that he was not in the least put out by our
silence!

"There is the case, my lady, as it stands
against Miss Verinder alone," he said. "The
next thing is to put the case as it stands against
Miss Verinder and the deceased Rosanna
Spearman, taken together. We will go back
for a moment, if you please, to your daughter's
refusal to let her wardrobe be examined.
My mind being made up, after that
circumstance, I had two questions to consider
next. First, as to the right method of
conducting my inquiry. Second, as to whether
Miss Verinder had an accomplice among the
female servants in the house. After carefully
thinking it over, I determined to conduct the
inquiry in, what we should call at our office, a
highly irregular manner. For this reason: I had
a family scandal to deal with, which it was my
business to keep within the family limits. The
less noise made, and the fewer strangers
employed to help me, the better. As to the usual
course of taking people in custody on suspicion,
going before the magistrate, and all the rest of
it—nothing of the sort was to be thought of,
when your ladyship's daughter was (as I
believed) at the bottom of the whole business.
In this case, I felt that a person of Mr.
Betteredge's character and position in the house—
knowing the servants as he did, and having the
honour of the family at heart—would be safer
to take as an assistant than any other person
whom I could lay my hand on. I should have
tried Mr. Blake as well—but for one obstacle
in the way. He saw the drift of my proceedings
at a very early date; and, with his interest in
Miss Verinder, any mutual understanding was
impossible between him and me. I trouble
your ladyship with these particulars to show
you that I have kept the family secret within
the family circle. I am the only outsider who
knows it—and my professional existence depends
on holding my tongue."

Here I felt that my professional existence
depended on not holding my tongue. To be held
up before my mistress, in my old age, as a sort
of deputy-policeman was, once again, more
than my Christianity was strong enough to
bear.

"I beg to inform your ladyship," I said,
"that I never, to my knowledge, helped this
abominable detective business, in any way, from
first to last; and I summon Sergeant Cuff to
contradict me, if he dares!"

Having given vent in those words, I felt
greatly relieved. Her ladyship honoured me
by a little friendly pat on the shoulder. I
looked with righteous indignation at the
Sergeant to see what he thought of such a
testimony as that! The Sergeant looked back like
a lamb, and seemed to like me better than
ever.

My lady informed him that he might continue
his statement. "I understand," she said, "that
you have honestly done your best, in what you
believe to be my interest. I am ready to hear
what you have to say next."

"What I have to say next," answered
Sergeant Cuff, "relates to Rosanna Spearman. I
recognised the young woman, as your ladyship
may remember, when she brought the washing-
book into this room. Up to that time I was
inclined to doubt whether Miss Verinder had
trusted her secret to any one. When I saw
Rosanna, I altered my mind. I suspected her
at once of being privy to the suppression of the
Diamond. The poor creature has met her
death by a dreadful end, and I don't want your
ladyship to think, now she's gone, that I was
unduly hard on her. If this had been a
common case of thieving, I should have given
Rosanna the benefit of the doubt just as freely
as I should have given it to any of the other
servants in the house. Our experience of the
reformatory women is, that when tried in
service—and when kindly and judiciously treated
—they prove themselves in the majority of
cases to be honestly penitent, and honestly
worthy of the pains taken with them. But this
was not a common case of thieving. It was a
case—in my mind—of a deeply planned fraud,
with the owner of the Diamond at the bottom of
it. Holding this view, the first consideration
which naturally presented itself to me, in
connexion with Rosanna, was this. Would Miss