To take anything as her ladyship took it was a privilege worth

enjoying--even with the disadvantage of its having been offered to me

by Sergeant Cuff. I cooled slowly down to my customary level. I regarded

any other opinion of Miss Rachel, than my lady's opinion or mine, with

a lofty contempt. The only thing I could not do, was to keep off the

subject of the Moonstone! My own good sense ought to have warned me, I

know, to let the matter rest--but, there! the virtues which distinguish

the present generation were not invented in my time. Sergeant Cuff had

hit me on the raw, and, though I did look down upon him with contempt,

the tender place still tingled for all that. The end of it was that I

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perversely led him back to the subject of her ladyship's letter. "I am

quite satisfied myself," I said. "But never mind that! Go on, as if

I was still open to conviction. You think Miss Rachel is not to be

believed on her word; and you say we shall hear of the Moonstone again.

Back your opinion, Sergeant," I concluded, in an airy way. "Back your

opinion."

Instead of taking offence, Sergeant Cuff seized my hand, and shook it

till my fingers ached again.

"I declare to heaven," says this strange officer solemnly, "I would

take to domestic service to-morrow, Mr. Betteredge, if I had a chance of

being employed along with You! To say you are as transparent as a child,

sir, is to pay the children a compliment which nine out of ten of them

don't deserve. There! there! we won't begin to dispute again. You shall

have it out of me on easier terms than that. I won't say a word more

about her ladyship, or about Miss Verinder--I'll only turn prophet, for

once in a way, and for your sake. I have warned you already that you

haven't done with the Moonstone yet. Very well. Now I'll tell you, at

parting, of three things which will happen in the future, and which, I

believe, will force themselves on your attention, whether you like it or

not."

"Go on!" I said, quite unabashed, and just as airy as ever.

"First," said the Sergeant, "you will hear something from the

Yollands--when the postman delivers Rosanna's letter at Cobb's Hole, on

Monday next."

If he had thrown a bucket of cold water over me, I doubt if I could have

felt it much more unpleasantly than I felt those words. Miss Rachel's

assertion of her innocence had left Rosanna's conduct--the making the

new nightgown, the hiding the smeared nightgown, and all the rest of

it--entirely without explanation. And this had never occurred to me,

till Sergeant Cuff forced it on my mind all in a moment!

"In the second place," proceeded the Sergeant, "you will hear of the

three Indians again. You will hear of them in the neighbourhood, if Miss

Rachel remains in the neighbourhood. You will hear of them in London, if

Miss Rachel goes to London."




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