The Moonstone - Page 151/404

"You shall judge for yourself, Sergeant." I thereupon read him the

letter (with my best emphasis and discretion), in the following words: "MY GOOD GABRIEL,--I request that you will inform Sergeant Cuff, that

I have performed the promise I made to him; with this result, so far as

Rosanna Spearman is concerned. Miss Verinder solemnly declares, that she

has never spoken a word in private to Rosanna, since that unhappy woman

first entered my house. They never met, even accidentally, on the night

when the Diamond was lost; and no communication of any sort whatever

took place between them, from the Thursday morning when the alarm was

first raised in the house, to this present Saturday afternoon, when Miss

Verinder left us. After telling my daughter suddenly, and in so many

words, of Rosanna Spearman's suicide--this is what has come of it."

Having reached that point, I looked up, and asked Sergeant Cuff what he

thought of the letter, so far?

"I should only offend you if I expressed MY opinion," answered the

Sergeant. "Go on, Mr. Betteredge," he said, with the most exasperating

resignation, "go on."

When I remembered that this man had had the audacity to complain of our

gardener's obstinacy, my tongue itched to "go on" in other words than my

mistress's. This time, however, my Christianity held firm. I proceeded

steadily with her ladyship's letter: "Having appealed to Miss Verinder in the manner which the officer

thought most desirable, I spoke to her next in the manner which I myself

thought most likely to impress her. On two different occasions, before

my daughter left my roof, I privately warned her that she was exposing

herself to suspicion of the most unendurable and most degrading kind.

I have now told her, in the plainest terms, that my apprehensions have

been realised.

"Her answer to this, on her own solemn affirmation, is as plain as words

can be. In the first place, she owes no money privately to any living

creature. In the second place, the Diamond is not now, and never has

been, in her possession, since she put it into her cabinet on Wednesday

night.

"The confidence which my daughter has placed in me goes no further than

this. She maintains an obstinate silence, when I ask her if she can

explain the disappearance of the Diamond. She refuses, with tears, when

I appeal to her to speak out for my sake. 'The day will come when you

will know why I am careless about being suspected, and why I am silent

even to you. I have done much to make my mother pity me--nothing to make

my mother blush for me.' Those are my daughter's own words.

"After what has passed between the officer and me, I think--stranger

as he is--that he should be made acquainted with what Miss Verinder has

said, as well as you. Read my letter to him, and then place in his

hands the cheque which I enclose. In resigning all further claim on his

services, I have only to say that I am convinced of his honesty and

his intelligence; but I am more firmly persuaded than ever, that the

circumstances, in this case, have fatally misled him."