"What I have said already," answered my mistress. "The circumstances

have misled you."

I said nothing on my side. ROBINSON CRUSOE--God knows how--had got into

my muddled old head. If Sergeant Cuff had found himself, at that

moment, transported to a desert island, without a man Friday to keep him

company, or a ship to take him off--he would have found himself exactly

where I wished him to be! (Nota bene:--I am an average good Christian,

when you don't push my Christianity too far. And all the rest of

you--which is a great comfort--are, in this respect, much the same as I

am.) Sergeant Cuff went on: "Right or wrong, my lady," he said, "having drawn my conclusion, the

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next thing to do was to put it to the test. I suggested to your ladyship

the examination of all the wardrobes in the house. It was a means of

finding the article of dress which had, in all probability, made the

smear; and it was a means of putting my 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

point-blank. 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 yourself 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!




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