This time, however, my Christianity held firm. I proceeded
steadily with her ladyship's letter:
"Having appealed to Miss Verinder in the manner which the officer
thought most desirable, I spoke to her next in the manner which I myself
thought most likely to impress her. On two different occasions, before
my daughter left my roof, I privately warned her that she was exposing
herself to suspicion of the most unendurable and most degrading kind.
I have now told her, in the plainest terms, that my apprehensions have
been realised.
"Her answer to this, on her own solemn affirmation, is as plain as words
can be. In the first place, she owes no money privately to any living
creature. In the second place, the Diamond is not now, and never has
been, in her possession, since she put it into her cabinet on Wednesday
night.
"The confidence which my daughter has placed in me goes no further than
this. She maintains an obstinate silence, when I ask her if she can
explain the disappearance of the Diamond. She refuses, with tears, when
I appeal to her to speak out for my sake. 'The day will come when you
will know why I am careless about being suspected, and why I am silent
even to you.
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