heard from the policeman, that Rosanna Spearman had returned from the
sands with in the last hour. The two together had a curious effect on
me as we went in to supper. I shook off Sergeant Cuff's arm, and,
forgetting my manners, pushed by him through the door to make my own
inquiries for myself.

Samuel, the footman, was the first person I met in the passage.

"Her ladyship is waiting to see you and Sergeant Cuff," he said, before
I could put any questions to him.

"How long has she been waiting?" asked the Sergeant's voice behind me.

"For the last hour, sir."

There it was again! Rosanna had come back; Miss Rachel had taken some
resolution out of the common; and my lady had been waiting to see the
Sergeant--all within the last hour! It was not pleasant to find these
very different persons and things linking themselves together in this
way. I went on upstairs, without looking at Sergeant Cuff, or speaking
to him. My hand took a sudden fit of trembling as I lifted it to knock
at my mistress's door.

"I shouldn't be surprised," whispered the Sergeant over my shoulder,
"if a scandal was to burst up in the house to-night. Don't be alarmed! I
have put the muzzle on worse family difficulties than this, in my time."

As he said the words I heard my mistress's voice calling to us to come
in.

CHAPTER XVI

We found my lady with no light in the room but the reading-lamp. The
shade was screwed down so as to overshadow her face. Instead of looking
up at us in her usual straightforward way, she sat close at the table,
and kept her eyes fixed obstinately on an open book.

"Officer," she said, "is it important to the inquiry you are conducting,
to know beforehand if any person now in this house wishes to leave it?"

"Most important, my lady."

"I have to tell you, then, that Miss Verinder proposes going to stay
with her aunt, Mrs. Ablewhite, of Frizinghall. She has arranged to leave
us the first thing to-morrow morning."

Sergeant Cuff looked at me. I made a step forward to speak to my
mistress--and, feeling my heart fail me (if I must own it), took a step
back again, and said nothing.

"May I ask your ladyship WHEN Miss Verinder informed you that she was
going to her aunt's?" inquired the Sergeant.

"About an hour since," answered my mistress.

Sergeant Cuff looked at me once more. They say old people's hearts are
not very easily moved. My heart couldn't have thumped much harder than
it did now, if I had be