The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins (ebook reader screen TXT) 📗

“Wait a little,” said the Sergeant. “The pieces of the puzzle are not all put together yet.”

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 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.”

“And that discovery,” remarked my mistress, “implies, I presume, the discovery of the thief?”

“I beg your ladyship’s pardon⁠—I don’t say the Diamond is stolen. I only say, at present, that the Diamond is missing. The discovery of the stained dress may lead the way to finding it.”

Her ladyship looked at me. “Do you understand this?” she said.

“Sergeant Cuff understands it, my lady,” I answered.

“How do you propose to discover the stained dress?” inquired my mistress, addressing herself once more to the Sergeant. “My good servants, who have been with me for years, have, I am ashamed to say, had their boxes and rooms searched already by the other officer. I can’t and won’t permit them to be insulted in that way a second time!”

(There was a mistress to serve! There was a woman in ten thousand, if you like!)

“That is the very point I was about to put to your ladyship,” said the Sergeant. “The other officer has done a world of harm to this inquiry, by letting the servants see that he suspected them. If I give them cause to think themselves suspected a second time, there’s no knowing what obstacles they may not throw in my way⁠—the women especially. At the same time, their boxes must be searched again⁠—for this plain reason, that the first investigation only looked for the Diamond, and that the second investigation must look for the stained dress. I quite agree with you, my lady, that the servants’ feelings ought to be consulted. But I am equally clear that the servants’ wardrobes ought to be searched.”

This looked very like a deadlock. My lady said so, in choicer language than mine.

“I have got a plan to meet the difficulty,” said Sergeant Cuff, “if your ladyship will consent to it. I propose explaining the case to the servants.”

“The women will think themselves suspected directly,” I said, interrupting him.

“The women won’t, Mr. Betteredge,” answered the Sergeant, “if I can tell them I am going to examine the wardrobes of everybody⁠—from her ladyship downwards⁠—who slept in the house on Wednesday night. It’s a mere formality,” he added, with a side look at my mistress; “but the servants will accept it as even dealing between them and their betters; and, instead of hindering the investigation, they will make a point of honour of assisting it.”

I saw the truth of that. My lady, after her first surprise was over, saw the truth of it also.

“You are certain the investigation is necessary?” she said.

“It’s the shortest way that I can see, my lady, to the end we have in view.”

My mistress rose to ring the bell for her maid. “You shall speak to the servants,” she said, “with the keys of my wardrobe in your hand.”

Sergeant Cuff stopped her by a very unexpected question.

“Hadn’t we better make sure first,” he asked, “that the