" The first of the Sergeant's guesses startled me.
The second mixed itself up somehow in my head with the report we had
heard from the policeman, that Rosanna Spearman had returned from the
sands with in the last hour. The two together had a curious effect on
me as we went in to supper. I shook off Sergeant Cuff's arm, and,
forgetting my manners, pushed by him through the door to make my own
inquiries for myself.
Samuel, the footman, was the first person I met in the passage.
"Her ladyship is waiting to see you and Sergeant Cuff," he said, before
I could put any questions to him.
"How long has she been waiting?" asked the Sergeant's voice behind me.
"For the last hour, sir."
There it was again! Rosanna had come back; Miss Rachel had taken some
resolution out of the common; and my lady had been waiting to see the
Sergeant--all within the last hour! It was not pleasant to find these
very different persons and things linking themselves together in this
way. I went on upstairs, without looking at Sergeant Cuff, or speaking
to him. My hand took a sudden fit of trembling as I lifted it to knock
at my mistress's door.
"I shouldn't be surprised," whispered the Sergeant over my shoulder,
"if a scandal was to burst up in the house to-night.
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