I found my lady in her own sitting room. She started and looked annoyed

when I mentioned that Sergeant Cuff wished to speak to her.

"MUST I see him?" she asked. "Can't you represent me, Gabriel?"

I felt at a loss to understand this, and showed it plainly, I suppose,

in my face. My lady was so good as to explain herself.

"I am afraid my nerves are a little shaken," she said. "There is

something in that police-officer from London which I recoil from--I

don't know why. I have a presentiment that he is bringing trouble and

misery with him into the house. Very foolish, and very unlike ME--but so

it is."

I hardly knew what to say to this. The more I saw of Sergeant Cuff, the

Advertisement..

better I liked him. My lady rallied a little after having opened her

heart to me--being, naturally, a woman of a high courage, as I have

already told you.

"If I must see him, I must," she said. "But I can't prevail on myself

to see him alone. Bring him in, Gabriel, and stay here as long as he

stays."

This was the first attack of the megrims that I remembered in my

mistress since the time when she was a young girl. I went back to the

"boudoir." Mr. Franklin strolled out into the garden, and joined Mr.

Godfrey, whose time for departure was now drawing near. Sergeant Cuff

and I went straight to my mistress's room.

I declare my lady turned a shade paler at the sight of him! She

commanded herself, however, in other respects, and asked the Sergeant

if he had any objection to my being present. She was so good as to add,

that I was her trusted adviser, as well as her old servant, and that in

anything which related to the household I was the person whom it might

be most profitable to consult. The Sergeant politely answered that he

would take my presence as a favour, having something to say about the

servants in general, and having found my experience in that quarter

already of some use to him. My lady pointed to two chairs, and we set in

for our conference immediately.

"I have already formed an opinion on this case," says Sergeant Cuff,

"which I beg your ladyship's permission to keep to myself for the

present. My business now is to mention what I have discovered upstairs

in Miss Verinder's sitting-room, and what I have decided (with your

ladyship's leave) on doing next."

He then went into the matter of the smear on the paint, and stated

the conclusions he drew from it--just as he had stated them (only with

greater respect of language) to Superintendent Seegrave. "One thing,"

he said, in conclusion, "is certain. The Diamond is missing out of the

drawer in the cabinet. Another thing is next to certain. The marks from

the smear on the door must be on some article of dress belonging to

somebody in this house. We must discover that article of dress before we

go a step further."




Most Popular