All this they had told Sergeant Cuff, who, in return for
their anxiety to enlighten him, had eyed them with sour and suspicious
looks, and had shown them plainly that he didn't believe either one or
the other. Hence, the unfavourable reports of him which these two women
had brought out with them from the examination. Hence, also (without
reckoning the influence of the tea-pot), their readiness to let their
tongues run to any length on the subject of the Sergeant's ungracious
behaviour to them.
Having had some experience of the great Cuff's round-about ways, and
having last seen him evidently bent on following Rosanna privately when
she went out for her walk, it seemed clear to me that he had thought it
unadvisable to let the lady's maid and the housemaid know how materially
they had helped him. They were just the sort of women, if he had treated
their evidence as trustworthy, to have been puffed up by it, and to
have said or done something which would have put Rosanna Spearman on her
guard.
I walked out in the fine summer afternoon, very sorry for the poor
girl, and very uneasy in my mind at the turn things had taken. Drifting
towards the shrubbery, some time later, there I met Mr.
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