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. The one result of my domestic practice
which has any bearing on the matter now in
hand, is a result which I may state in two
words. It is well within my experience, that
young ladies of rank and position do occasionally
have private debts which they dare not acknowledge
to their nearest relatives and friends.
Sometimes, the milliner and the jeweller are at
the bottom of it. Sometimes, the money is
wanted for purposes which I don't suspect in
this case, and which I won't shock you by
mentioning. Bear in mind what I have said, my
lady—and now let us see how events in this
house have forced me back on my own
experience, whether I liked it or not!"

He considered with himself for a moment,
and went on—with a horrid clearness that obliged
you to understand him; with an abominable
justice that favoured nobody.

"My first information relating to the loss of
the Moonstone," said the Sergeant, "came to
me from Superintendent Seegrave. He proved
to my complete satisfaction that he was
perfectly incapable of managing the case. The
one thing he said which struck me as worth
listening to, was this—that Miss Verinder had
declined to be questioned by him, and had spoken
to him with a perfectly incomprehensible
rudeness and contempt. I thought this curious—
but I attributed it mainly to some clumsiness
on the Superintendent's part which might have
offended the young lady. After that, I put it
by in my mind, and applied myself, single-handed,
to the case. It ended, as you are aware,
in the discovery of the smear on the door, and
in Mr. Franklin Blake's evidence satisfying me,
that this same smear, and the loss of the
Diamond, were pieces of the same puzzle. So far,
if I suspected anything, I suspected that the
Moonstone had been stolen, and that one of the
servants might prove to be the thief. Very
good. In this state of things, what happens?
Miss Verinder suddenly comes out of her room,
and speaks to me. I observe three suspicious
appearances in that young lady. She is still
violently agitated, though more than four-and-
twenty hours have passed since the Diamond
was lost. She treats me, as she has already
treated Superintendent Seegrave. And she is
mortally offended with Mr. Franklin Blake.
Very good again. Here (I say to myself) is a
young lady who has lost a valuable jewel—a
young lady, also, as my own eyes and ears inform
me, who is of an impetuous temperament. Under
these circumstances, and with that character,
what does she do? She betrays an incomprehensible
resentment against Mr. Blake, Mr.
Superintendent, and myself—otherwise, the very three
people who have all, in their different ways,
been trying to help her to recover her lost
jewel. Having brought my inquiry to that
point—then, my lady, and not till then, I begin
to look back into my own mind for my own
experience. My own experience explains Miss
Verinder's otherwise incomprehensible
conduct. It associates her with those other
young ladies that I know of. It tells me
she has debts she daren't acknowledge, that
must be paid. And it sets me asking myself,
whether the loss of the Diamond may not mean
—that the Diamond must be secretly pledged
to pay them. That is the conclusion which my
experience draws from plain facts. What does
your ladyship's experience say against it?"

"What I have said already," answered my
mistress. "The circumstances have misled
you."

I said nothing on my side. Robinson Crusoe
—God knows how—had got into my muddled
old head. If Sergeant Cuff had found himself,
at that moment, transported to a desert island,
without a man Friday to keep him company, or
a ship to take him off—he would have found
himself exactly where I wished him to be!
(Nota bene:—I am an average good Christian,
when you don't push my Christianity too far.
And all the rest of you—which is a great
comfort—are, in this respect, much the same as I
am.)

Sergeant Cuff went on:

"Right or wrong, my lady," he said, "having
drawn my conclusion, the next thing to do was
to put it to the test. I suggested to your ladyship
the examination of all the wardrobes in the
house. It was a means of finding the article of
dress which had, in all probability, made the
smear; and it was a means of putting my