Sergeant Cuff discovered that much, if he discovered nothing more. And
I can guess how. I was detected (though I kept my veil down) in the
draper's shop at Frizinghall. There was a glass in front of me, at the
counter where I was buying the longcloth; and--in that glass--I saw one
of the shopmen point to my shoulder and whisper to another. At night
again, when I was secretly at work, locked into my room, I heard the
breathing of the women servants who suspected me, outside my door.
"It didn't matter then; it doesn't matter now. On the Friday morning,
hours before Sergeant Cuff entered the house, there was the new
nightgown--to make up your number in place of the nightgown that I had
got--made, wrung out, dried, ironed, marked, and folded as the laundry
woman folded all the others, safe in your drawer. There was no fear (if
the linen in the house was examined) of the newness of the nightgown
betraying me. All your underclothing had been renewed, when you came to
our house--I suppose on your return home from foreign parts.
"The next thing was the arrival of Sergeant Cuff; and the next great
surprise was the announcement of what HE thought about the smear on the
door.
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