As things stood, at present, no answer to those questions was to be

hoped for from anybody in the house. Mr. Franklin appeared to think it

a point of honour to forbear repeating to a servant--even to so old a

servant as I was--what Miss Rachel had said to him on the terrace. Mr.

Godfrey, who, as a gentleman and a relative, had been probably admitted

into Mr. Franklin's confidence, respected that confidence as he was

bound to do. My lady, who was also in the secret no doubt, and who alone

had access to Miss Rachel, owned openly that she could make nothing

of her. "You madden me when you talk of the Diamond!" All her mother's

influence failed to extract from her a word more than that.

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Here we were, then, at a dead-lock about Miss Rachel--and at a dead-lock

about the Moonstone. In the first case, my lady was powerless to help

us. In the second (as you shall presently judge), Mr. Seegrave was fast

approaching the condition of a superintendent at his wits' end.

Having ferreted about all over the "boudoir," without making any

discoveries among the furniture, our experienced officer applied to me

to know, whether the servants in general were or were not acquainted

with the place in which the Diamond had been put for the night.

"I knew where it was put, sir," I said, "to begin with. Samuel, the

footman, knew also--for he was present in the hall, when they were

talking about where the Diamond was to be kept that night. My daughter

knew, as she has already told you. She or Samuel may have mentioned the

thing to the other servants--or the other servants may have heard the

talk for themselves, through the side-door of the hall, which might have

been open to the back staircase. For all I can tell, everybody in the

house may have known where the jewel was, last night."

My answer presenting rather a wide field for Mr. Superintendent's

suspicions to range over, he tried to narrow it by asking about the

servants' characters next.

I thought directly of Rosanna Spearman. But it was neither my place nor

my wish to direct suspicion against a poor girl, whose honesty had

been above all doubt as long as I had known her. The matron at the

Reformatory had reported her to my lady as a sincerely penitent and

thoroughly trustworthy girl. It was the Superintendent's business to

discover reason for suspecting her first--and then, and not till then,

it would be my duty to tell him how she came into my lady's service.

"All our people have excellent characters," I said. "And all have

deserved the trust their mistress has placed in them." After that, there

was but one thing left for Mr. Seegrave to do--namely, to set to work,

and tackle the servants' characters himself.




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