The Moonstone - Page 97/404

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"A touch of the rheumatics in my back," said the Sergeant, in a loud

voice, as if he wanted some third person to hear us. "We shall have a

change in the weather before long."

A few steps further brought us to the corner of the house. Turning off

sharp to the right, we entered on the terrace, and went down, by the

steps in the middle, into the garden below. Sergeant Cuff stopped there,

in the open space, where we could see round us on every side.

"About that young person, Rosanna Spearman?" he said. "It isn't very

likely, with her personal appearance, that she has got a lover. But,

for the girl's own sake, I must ask you at once whether SHE has provided

herself with a sweetheart, poor wretch, like the rest of them?"

What on earth did he mean, under present circumstances, by putting such

a question to me as that? I stared at him, instead of answering him.

"I saw Rosanna Spearman hiding in the shrubbery as we went by," said the

Sergeant.

"When you said 'Hullo'?"

"Yes--when I said 'Hullo!' If there's a sweetheart in the case, the

hiding doesn't much matter. If there isn't--as things are in this

house--the hiding is a highly suspicious circumstance, and it will be my

painful duty to act on it accordingly."

What, in God's name, was I to say to him? I knew the shrubbery was Mr.

Franklin's favourite walk; I knew he would most likely turn that way

when he came back from the station; I knew that Penelope had over and

over again caught her fellow-servant hanging about there, and had always

declared to me that Rosanna's object was to attract Mr. Franklin's

attention. If my daughter was right, she might well have been lying in

wait for Mr. Franklin's return when the Sergeant noticed her. I was put

between the two difficulties of mentioning Penelope's fanciful notion

as if it was mine, or of leaving an unfortunate creature to suffer the

consequences, the very serious consequences, of exciting the suspicion

of Sergeant Cuff. Out of pure pity for the girl--on my soul and my

character, out of pure pity for the girl--I gave the Sergeant the

necessary explanations, and told him that Rosanna had been mad enough to

set her heart on Mr. Franklin Blake.

Sergeant Cuff never laughed. On the few occasions when anything amused

him, he curled up a little at the corners of the lips, nothing more. He

curled up now.

"Hadn't you better say she's mad enough to be an ugly girl and only

a servant?" he asked. "The falling in love with a gentleman of Mr.

Franklin Blake's manners and appearance doesn't seem to me to be the

maddest part of her conduct by any means. However, I'm glad the thing is

cleared up: it relieves one's mind to have things cleared up. Yes,

I'll keep it a secret, Mr. Betteredge. I like to be tender to human

infirmity--though I don't get many chances of exercising that virtue in

my line of life. You think Mr. Franklin Blake hasn't got a suspicion of

the girl's fancy for him? Ah! he would have found it out fast enough if

she had been nice-looking. The ugly women have a bad time of it in this

world; let's hope it will be made up to them in another. You have got a

nice garden here, and a well-kept lawn. See for yourself how much better

the flowers look with grass about them instead of gravel. No, thank you.

I won't take a rose. It goes to my heart to break them off the stem.

Just as it goes to your heart, you know, when there's something wrong in

the servants' hall. Did you notice anything you couldn't account for in

any of the servants when the loss of the Diamond was first found out?"