"In all my thoughts of you I had never thought of your going away. I

couldn't speak to Penelope. I could only look at her.

"'I've just left Miss Rachel,' Penelope went on. 'And a hard matter

I have had of it to put up with her temper. She says the house is

unbearable to her with the police in it; and she's determined to speak

to my lady this evening, and to go to her Aunt Ablewhite to-morrow. If

she does that, Mr. Franklin will be the next to find a reason for going

away, you may depend on it!' "I recovered the use of my tongue at that. 'Do you mean to say Mr.

Franklin will go with her?' I asked.

"'Only too gladly, if she would let him; but she won't. HE has been made

Advertisement..

to feel her temper; HE is in her black books too--and that after having

done all he can to help her, poor fellow! No! no! If they don't make

it up before to-morrow, you will see Miss Rachel go one way, and Mr.

Franklin another. Where he may betake himself to I can't say. But he

will never stay here, Rosanna, after Miss Rachel has left us.' "I managed to master the despair I felt at the prospect of your going

away. To own the truth, I saw a little glimpse of hope for myself if

there was really a serious disagreement between Miss Rachel and you. 'Do

you know,' I asked, 'what the quarrel is between them?' "'It is all on Miss Rachel's side,' Penelope said. 'And, for anything I

know to the contrary, it's all Miss Rachel's temper, and nothing else.

I am loth to distress you, Rosanna; but don't run away with the notion

that Mr. Franklin is ever likely to quarrel with HER. He's a great deal

too fond of her for that!' "She had only just spoken those cruel words when there came a call to

us from Mr. Betteredge. All the indoor servants were to assemble in the

hall. And then we were to go in, one by one, and be questioned in Mr.

Betteredge's room by Sergeant Cuff.

"It came to my turn to go in, after her ladyship's maid and the upper

housemaid had been questioned first. Sergeant Cuff's inquiries--though

he wrapped them up very cunningly--soon showed me that those two women

(the bitterest enemies I had in the house) had made their discoveries

outside my door, on the Tuesday afternoon, and again on the Thursday

night. They had told the Sergeant enough to open his eyes to some

part of the truth. He rightly believed me to have made a new nightgown

secretly, but he wrongly believed the paint-stained nightgown to be

mine. I felt satisfied of another thing, from what he said, which it

puzzled me to understand. He suspected me, of course, of being concerned

in the disappearance of the Diamond. But, at the same time, he let me

see--purposely, as I thought--that he did not consider me as the person

chiefly answerable for the loss of the jewel. He appeared to think that

I had been acting under the direction of somebody else. Who that person

might be, I couldn't guess then, and can't guess now.




Most Popular