He came back to you. You looked at him in a dull sleepy way. You put the
Diamond into his hand. You said to him, "Take it back, Godfrey, to your
father's bank. It's safe there--it's not safe here." You turned away
unsteadily, and put on your dressing-gown. You sat down in the large
arm-chair in your room. You said, "I can't take it back to the bank. My
head's like lead--and I can't feel my feet under me." Your head sank on
the back of the chair--you heaved a heavy sigh--and you fell asleep.
Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite went back, with the Diamond, into his own room.
His statement is, that he came to no conclusion, at that time--except
that he would wait, and see what happened in the morning.
When the morning came, your language and conduct showed that you were
absolutely ignorant of what you had said and done overnight. At the same
time, Miss Verinder's language and conduct showed that she was resolved
to say nothing (in mercy to you) on her side. If Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite
chose to keep the Diamond, he might do so with perfect impunity. The
Moonstone stood between him and ruin. He put the Moonstone into his
pocket.
CHAPTER Second Period Sixth Narrative - Chapter V This was the story told by your cousin (under pressure of necessity) to
Mr. Luker.
Mr. Luker believed the story to be, as to all main essentials, true--on
this ground, that Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite was too great a fool to have
invented it. Mr. Bruff and I agree with Mr. Luker, in considering this
test of the truth of the story to be a perfectly reliable one.
The next question, was the question of what Mr. Luker would do in the
matter of the Moonstone. He proposed the following terms, as the only
terms on which he would consent to mix himself up with, what was (even
in HIS line of business) a doubtful and dangerous transaction.
Mr. Luker would consent to lend Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite the sum of two
thousand pounds, on condition that the Moonstone was to be deposited
with him as a pledge. If, at the expiration of one year from that date,
Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite paid three thousand pounds to Mr. Luker, he was to
receive back the Diamond, as a pledge redeemed. If he failed to produce
the money at the expiration of the year, the pledge (otherwise the
Moonstone) was to be considered as forfeited to Mr. Luker--who would,
in this latter case, generously make Mr. Godfrey a present of certain
promissory notes of his (relating to former dealings) which were then in
the money-lender's possession.