For
that chance I was now waiting.
The letter ended in these terms:
"You have no need to be angry, Mr. Franklin, even if I did feel some
little triumph at knowing that I held all your prospects in life in
my own hands. Anxieties and fears soon came back to me. With the view
Sergeant Cuff took of the loss of the Diamond, he would be sure to
end in examining our linen and our dresses. There was no place in my
room--there was no place in the house--which I could feel satisfied
would be safe from him. How to hide the nightgown so that not even the
Sergeant could find it? and how to do that without losing one moment
of precious time?--these were not easy questions to answer. My
uncertainties ended in my taking a way that may make you laugh. I
undressed, and put the nightgown on me. You had worn it--and I had
another little moment of pleasure in wearing it after you.
"The next news that reached us in the servants' hall showed that I had
not made sure of the nightgown a moment too soon. Sergeant Cuff wanted
to see the washing-book.
"I found it, and took it to him in my lady's sitting-room. The Sergeant
and I had come across each other more than once in former days.
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