I was
certain he would know me again--and I was NOT certain of what he might
do when he found me employed as servant in a house in which a valuable
jewel had been lost. In this suspense, I felt it would be a relief to me
to get the meeting between us over, and to know the worst of it at once.
"He looked at me as if I was a stranger, when I handed him the
washing-book; and he was very specially polite in thanking me for
bringing it. I thought those were both bad signs. There was no knowing
what he might say of me behind my back; there was no knowing how soon
I might not find myself taken in custody on suspicion, and searched. It
was then time for your return from seeing Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite off by
the railway; and I went to your favourite walk in the shrubbery, to try
for another chance of speaking to you--the last chance, for all I knew
to the contrary, that I might have.
"You never appeared; and, what was worse still, Mr. Betteredge and
Sergeant Cuff passed by the place where I was hiding--and the Sergeant
saw me.
"I had no choice, after that, but to return to my proper place and my
proper work, before more disasters happened to me.
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