第75章

T HE first words, when we had taken our seats, were spoken by my lady.

`Sergeant Cuff,' she said, `there was perhaps some excuse for the inconsiderate manner in which I spoke to you half an hour since.I have no wish, however, to claim that excuse.I say, with perfect sincerity, that I regret it, if I wronged you.'

The grace of voice and manner with which she made him that atonement had its due effect on the Sergeant.He requested permission to justify himself -- putting his justification as an act of respect to my mistress.

It was impossible, he said, that he could be in any way responsible for the calamity which had shocked us all, for this sufficient reason, that his success in bringing his inquiry to its proper end depended on his neither saying nor doing anything that could alarm Rosanna Spearman.He appealed to me to testify whether he had, or had not, carried that object out.Icould, and did, bear witness that he had.And there, as I thought, the matter might have been judiciously left to come to an end.

Sergeant Cuff, however, took it a step further, evidently (as you shall now judge) with the purpose of forcing the most painful of all possible explanations to take place between her ladyship and himself.

`I have heard a motive assigned for the young woman's suicide,' said the Sergeant, `which may possibly be the right one.It is a motive quite unconnected with the case which I am conducting here.I am bound to add, however, that my own opinion points the other way.Some unbearable anxiety in connection with the missing Diamond, has, I believe, driven the poor creature to her destruction.I don't pretend to know what that unbearable anxiety may have been.But I think (with your ladyship's permission) Ican lay my hand on a person who is capable of deciding whether I am right or wrong.'

`Is the person now in the house?' my mistress asked, after waiting a little.

`The person has left the house, my lady.'

That answer pointed as straight to Miss Rachel as straight could be.

A silence dropped on us which I thought would never come to an end.Lord!

how the wind howled, and how the rain drove at the window, as I sat there waiting for one or other of them to speak again!

`Be so good as to express yourself plainly,' said my lady.`Do you refer to my daughter?'

`I do,' said Sergeant Cuff, in so many words.

My mistress had her cheque-book on the table when we entered the room -- no doubt to pay the Sergeant his fee.She now put it back in the drawer.

It went to my heart to see how her poor hand trembled -- the hand that had loaded her old servant with benefits; the hand that, I pray God, may take mine, when my time comes, and I leave my place for ever!

`I had hoped,' said my lady, very slowly and quietly, `to have recompensed your services, and to have parted with you without Miss Verinder's name having been openly mentioned between us as it has been mentioned now.My nephew has probably said something of this, before you came into my room?'

`Mr.Blake gave his message, my lady.And I gave Mr.Blake a reason --'

`It is needless to tell me your reason.After what you have just said, you know as well as I do that you have gone too far to go back.I owe it to myself, and I owe it to my child, to insist on your remaining here, and to insist on your speaking out.'

The Sergeant looked at his watch.

`If there had been time, my lady,' he answered, `I should have preferred writing my report, instead of communicating it by word of mouth.But, if this inquiry is to go on, time is of too much importance to be wasted in writing.I am ready to go into the matter at once.It is a very painful matter for me to speak of, and for you to hear --'

There my mistress stopped him once more.

`I may possibly make it less painful to you, and to my good servant and friend here,' she said, `if I set the example of speaking boldly, on my side.You suspect Miss Verinder of deceiving us all, by secreting the Diamond for some purpose of her own? Is that true?'

`Quite true, my lady.'

`Very well.Now, before you begin, I have to tell you, as Miss Verinder's mother, that she is absolutely incapable of doing what you suppose her to have done.Your knowledge of her character dates from a day or two since.My knowledge of her character dates from the beginning of her life.

State your suspicion of her as strongly as you please -- it is impossible that you can offend me by doing so.I am sure, beforehand, that (with all your experience) the circumstances have fatally misled you in this case.

Mind! I am in possession of no private information.I am as absolutely shut out of my daughter's confidence as you are.My one reason for speaking positively, is the reason you have heard already.I know my child.'

She turned to me, and gave me her hand.I kissed it in silence `You may go on,' she said, facing the Sergeant again as steadily as ever.

Sergeant Cuff bowed.My mistress had produced but one effect on him.

His hatchet-face softened for a moment, as if he was sorry for her.As to shaking him in his own conviction, it was plain to see that she had not moved him by a single inch.He settled himself in his chair; and he began his vile attack on Miss Rachel's character in these words:

`I must ask your ladyship,' he said, `to look this matter in the face, from my point of view as well as from yours.Will you please to suppose yourself coming down here, in my place, and with my experience? and will you allow me to mention very briefly what that experience has been?'

My mistress signed to him that she would do this.The Sergeant went on:

`For the last twenty years,' he said, `I have been largely employed in cases of family scandal, acting in the capacity of confidential man.