"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.
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