Betteredge?"
"You shall judge for yourself, Sergeant." I thereupon read him the
letter (with my best emphasis and discretion), in the following words:
"MY GOOD GABRIEL,--I request that you will inform Sergeant Cuff, that
I have performed the promise I made to him; with this result, so far as
Rosanna Spearman is concerned. Miss Verinder solemnly declares, that she
has never spoken a word in private to Rosanna, since that unhappy woman
first entered my house. They never met, even accidentally, on the night
when the Diamond was lost; and no communication of any sort whatever
took place between them, from the Thursday morning when the alarm was
first raised in the house, to this present Saturday afternoon, when Miss
Verinder left us. After telling my daughter suddenly, and in so many
words, of Rosanna Spearman's suicide--this is what has come of it."
Having reached that point, I looked up, and asked Sergeant Cuff what he
thought of the letter, so far?
"I should only offend you if I expressed MY opinion," answered the
Sergeant. "Go on, Mr. Betteredge," he said, with the most exasperating
resignation, "go on."
When I remembered that this man had had the audacity to complain of our
gardener's obstinacy, my tongue itched to "go on" in other words than my
mistress's.
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