The Moonstone

by Wilkie Collins

  CHAPTER XXI

  The first words, when we had taken our seats, were spoken by my lady.

  "Sergeant Cuff," she said, "there was perhaps some excuse for theinconsiderate manner in which I spoke to you half an hour since. I haveno wish, however, to claim that excuse. I say, with perfect sincerity,that I regret it, if I wronged you."

  The grace of voice and manner with which she made him that atonementhad its due effect on the Sergeant. He requested permission to justifyhimself--putting his justification as an act of respect to my mistress.It was impossible, he said, that he could be in any way responsible forthe calamity, which had shocked us all, for this sufficient reason, thathis success in bringing his inquiry to its proper end depended on hisneither saying nor doing anything that could alarm Rosanna Spearman.He appealed to me to testify whether he had, or had not, carried thatobject out. I could, and did, bear witness that he had. And there, as Ithought, the matter might have been judiciously left to come to an end.

  Sergeant Cuff, however, took it a step further, evidently (as you shallnow judge) with the purpose of forcing the most painful of all possibleexplanations to take place between her ladyship and himself.

  "I have heard a motive assigned for the young woman's suicide," saidthe Sergeant, "which may possibly be the right one. It is a motive quiteunconnected with the case which I am conducting here. I am bound toadd, however, that my own opinion points the other way. Some unbearableanxiety in connexion with the missing Diamond, has, I believe, driventhe poor creature to her own destruction. I don't pretend to know whatthat unbearable anxiety may have been. But I think (with your ladyship'spermission) I can lay my hand on a person who is capable of decidingwhether I am right or wrong."

  "Is the person now in the house?" my mistress asked, after waiting alittle.

  "The person has left the house, my lady."

  That answer pointed as straight to Miss Rachel as straight could be. Asilence dropped on us which I thought would never come to an end. Lord!how the wind howled, and how the rain drove at the window, as I satthere waiting for one or other of them to speak again!

  "Be so good as to express yourself plainly," said my lady. "Do you referto my daughter?"

  "I do," said Sergeant Cuff, in so many words.

  My mistress had her cheque-book on the table when we entered theroom--no doubt to pay the Sergeant his fee. She now put it back in thedrawer. It went to my heart to see how her poor hand trembled--the handthat had loaded her old servant with benefits; the hand that, I prayGod, may take mine, when my time comes, and I leave my place for ever!

  "I had hoped," said my lady, very slowly and quietly, "to haverecompensed your services, and to have parted with you without MissVerinder's name having been openly mentioned between us as it has beenmentioned now. My nephew has probably said something of this, before youcame into my room?"

  "Mr. Blake gave his message, my lady. And I gave Mr. Blake a reason----"

  "It is needless to tell me your reason. After what you have just said,you know as well as I do that you have gone too far to go back. I owe itto myself, and I owe it to my child, to insist on your remaining here,and to insist on your speaking out."

  The Sergeant looked at his watch.

  "If there had been time, my lady," he answered, "I should have preferredwriting my report, instead of communicating it by word of mouth. But, ifthis inquiry is to go on, time is of too much importance to be wasted inwriting. I am ready to go into the matter at once. It is a very painfulmatter for me to speak of, and for you to hear."

  There my mistress stopped him once more.

  "I may possibly make it less painful to you, and to my good servant andfriend here," she said, "if I set the example of speaking boldly, on myside. You suspect Miss Verinder of deceiving us all, by secreting theDiamond for some purpose of her own? Is that true?"

  "Quite true, my lady."

  "Very well. Now, before you begin, I have to tell you, as MissVerinder's mother, that she is ABSOLUTELY INCAPABLE of doing what yousuppose her to have done. Your knowledge of her character dates from aday or two since. My knowledge of her character dates from the beginningof her life. State your suspicion of her as strongly as you please--itis impossible that you can offend me by doing so. I am sure, beforehand,that (with all your experience) the circumstances have fatally misledyou in this case. Mind! I am in possession of no private information. Iam as absolutely shut out of my daughter's confidence as you are. My onereason for speaking positively, is the reason you have heard already. Iknow my child."

  She turned to me, and gave me her hand. I kissed it in silence. "You maygo on," she said, facing the Sergeant again as steadily as ever.

  Sergeant Cuff bowed. My mistress had produced but one effect on him. Hishatchet-face softened for a moment, as if he was sorry for her. As toshaking him in his own conviction, it was plain to see that she hadnot moved him by a single inch. He settled himself in his chair; and hebegan his vile attack on Miss Rachel's character in these words:

  "I must ask your ladyship," he said, "to look this matter in the face,from my point of view as well as from yours. Will you please to supposeyourself coming down here, in my place, and with my experience? and willyou allow me to mention very briefly what that experience has been?"

  My mistress signed to him that she would do this. The Sergeant went on:

  "For the last twenty years," he said, "I have been largely employed incases of family scandal, acting in the capacity of confidential man. Theone result of my domestic practice which has any bearing on the matternow in hand, is a result which I may state in two words. It is wellwithin my experience, that young ladies of rank and position dooccasionally have private debts which they dare not acknowledge to theirnearest relatives and friends. Sometimes, the milliner and the jewellerare at the bottom of it. Sometimes, the money is wanted for purposeswhich I don't suspect in this case, and which I won't shock you bymentioning. Bear in mind what I have said, my lady--and now let ussee how events in this house have forced me back on my own experience,whether I liked it or not!"

  He considered with himself for a moment, and went on--with a horridclearness that obliged you to understand him; with an abominable justicethat favoured nobody.

  "My first information relating to the loss of the Moonstone," said theSergeant, "came to me from Superintendent Seegrave. He proved to mycomplete satisfaction that he was perfectly incapable of managing thecase. The one thing he said which struck me as worth listening to, wasthis--that Miss Verinder had declined to be questioned by him, and hadspoken to him with a perfectly incomprehensible rudeness and contempt.I thought this curious--but I attributed it mainly to some clumsinesson the Superintendent's part which might have offended the young lady.After that, I put it by in my mind, and applied myself, single-handed,to the case. It ended, as you are aware, in the discovery of the smearon the door, and in Mr. Franklin Blake's evidence satisfying me, thatthis same smear, and the loss of the Diamond, were pieces of the samepuzzle. So far, if I suspected anything, I suspected that the Moonstonehad been stolen, and that one of the servants might prove to be thethief. Very good. In this state of things, what happens? Miss Verindersuddenly comes out of her room, and speaks to me. I observe threesuspicious appearances in that young lady. She is still violentlyagitated, though more than four-and-twenty hours have passed sincethe Diamond was lost. She treats me as she has already treatedSuperintendent Seegrave. And she is mortally offended with Mr. FranklinBlake. Very good again. Here (I say to myself) is a young lady whohas lost a valuable jewel--a young lady, also, as my own eyes andears inform me, who is of an impetuous temperament. Under thesecircumstances, and with that character, what does she do? She betrays anincomprehensible resentment against Mr. Blake, Mr. Superintendent,and myself--otherwise, the very three people who have all, in theirdifferent ways, been trying to help her to recover her lost jewel.Having brought my inquiry to that point--THEN, my lady, and not tillthen, I begin to look back into my own mind for my own experience.My own experience e
xplains Miss Verinder's otherwise incomprehensibleconduct. It associates her with those other young ladies that I know of.It tells me she has debts she daren't acknowledge, that must be paid.And it sets me asking myself, whether the loss of the Diamond may notmean--that the Diamond must be secretly pledged to pay them. That is theconclusion which my experience draws from plain facts. What does yourladyship's experience say against it?"

  "What I have said already," answered my mistress. "The circumstanceshave misled you."

  I said nothing on my side. ROBINSON CRUSOE--God knows how--had got intomy muddled old head. If Sergeant Cuff had found himself, at thatmoment, transported to a desert island, without a man Friday to keep himcompany, or a ship to take him off--he would have found himself exactlywhere I wished him to be! (Nota bene:--I am an average good Christian,when you don't push my Christianity too far. And all the rest ofyou--which is a great comfort--are, in this respect, much the same as Iam.)

  Sergeant Cuff went on:

  "Right or wrong, my lady," he said, "having drawn my conclusion, thenext thing to do was to put it to the test. I suggested to your ladyshipthe examination of all the wardrobes in the house. It was a means offinding the article of dress which had, in all probability, made thesmear; and it was a means of putting my conclusion to the test. How didit turn out? Your ladyship consented; Mr. Blake consented; Mr. Ablewhiteconsented. Miss Verinder alone stopped the whole proceeding by refusingpoint-blank. That result satisfied me that my view was the right one.If your ladyship and Mr. Betteredge persist in not agreeing with me,you must be blind to what happened before you this very day. In yourhearing, I told the young lady that her leaving the house (as thingswere then) would put an obstacle in the way of my recovering her jewel.You saw yourselves that she drove off in the face of that statement. Yousaw yourself that, so far from forgiving Mr. Blake for having done morethan all the rest of you to put the clue into my hands, she publiclyinsulted Mr. Blake, on the steps of her mother's house. What do thesethings mean? If Miss Verinder is not privy to the suppression of theDiamond, what do these things mean?"

  This time he looked my way. It was downright frightful to hear himpiling up proof after proof against Miss Rachel, and to know, while onewas longing to defend her, that there was no disputing the truth of whathe said. I am (thank God!) constitutionally superior to reason. Thisenabled me to hold firm to my lady's view, which was my view also. Thisroused my spirit, and made me put a bold face on it before SergeantCuff. Profit, good friends, I beseech you, by my example. It will saveyou from many troubles of the vexing sort. Cultivate a superiority toreason, and see how you pare the claws of all the sensible people whenthey try to scratch you for your own good!

  Finding that I made no remark, and that my mistress made no remark,Sergeant Cuff proceeded. Lord! how it did enrage me to notice that hewas not in the least put out by our silence!

  "There is the case, my lady, as it stands against Miss Verinder alone,"he said. "The next thing is to put the case as it stands against MissVerinder and the deceased Rosanna Spearman taken together. We will goback for a moment, if you please, to your daughter's refusal to let herwardrobe be examined. My mind being made up, after that circumstance,I had two questions to consider next. First, as to the right methodof conducting my inquiry. Second, as to whether Miss Verinder had anaccomplice among the female servants in the house. After carefullythinking it over, I determined to conduct the inquiry in, what we shouldcall at our office, a highly irregular manner. For this reason: I had afamily scandal to deal with, which it was my business to keep within thefamily limits. The less noise made, and the fewer strangers employed tohelp me, the better. As to the usual course of taking people incustody on suspicion, going before the magistrate, and all the restof it--nothing of the sort was to be thought of, when your ladyship'sdaughter was (as I believed) at the bottom of the whole business.In this case, I felt that a person of Mr. Betteredge's character andposition in the house--knowing the servants as he did, and having thehonour of the family at heart--would be safer to take as an assistantthan any other person whom I could lay my hand on. I should have triedMr. Blake as well--but for one obstacle in the way. HE saw the driftof my proceedings at a very early date; and, with his interest in MissVerinder, any mutual understanding was impossible between him and me.I trouble your ladyship with these particulars to show you that I havekept the family secret within the family circle. I am the only outsiderwho knows it--and my professional existence depends on holding mytongue."

  Here I felt that my professional existence depended on not holding mytongue. To be held up before my mistress, in my old age, as a sort ofdeputy-policeman, was, once again, more than my Christianity was strongenough to bear.

  "I beg to inform your ladyship," I said, "that I never, to my knowledge,helped this abominable detective business, in any way, from first tolast; and I summon Sergeant Cuff to contradict me, if he dares!"

  Having given vent in those words, I felt greatly relieved. Her ladyshiphonoured me by a little friendly pat on the shoulder. I looked withrighteous indignation at the Sergeant, to see what he thought of such atestimony as THAT. The Sergeant looked back like a lamb, and seemed tolike me better than ever.

  My lady informed him that he might continue his statement. "Iunderstand," she said, "that you have honestly done your best, in whatyou believe to be my interest. I am ready to hear what you have to saynext."

  "What I have to say next," answered Sergeant Cuff, "relates to RosannaSpearman. I recognised the young woman, as your ladyship may remember,when she brought the washing-book into this room. Up to that time I wasinclined to doubt whether Miss Verinder had trusted her secret to anyone. When I saw Rosanna, I altered my mind. I suspected her at once ofbeing privy to the suppression of the Diamond. The poor creature has mether death by a dreadful end, and I don't want your ladyship to think,now she's gone, that I was unduly hard on her. If this had been a commoncase of thieving, I should have given Rosanna the benefit of the doubtjust as freely as I should have given it to any of the other servants inthe house. Our experience of the Reformatory woman is, that whentried in service--and when kindly and judiciously treated--they provethemselves in the majority of cases to be honestly penitent, andhonestly worthy of the pains taken with them. But this was not a commoncase of thieving. It was a case--in my mind--of a deeply planned fraud,with the owner of the Diamond at the bottom of it. Holding this view,the first consideration which naturally presented itself to me, inconnection with Rosanna, was this: Would Miss Verinder be satisfied(begging your ladyship's pardon) with leading us all to think that theMoonstone was merely lost? Or would she go a step further, and delude usinto believing that the Moonstone was stolen? In the latter event therewas Rosanna Spearman--with the character of a thief--ready to her hand;the person of all others to lead your ladyship off, and to lead me off,on a false scent."

  Was it possible (I asked myself) that he could put his case againstMiss Rachel and Rosanna in a more horrid point of view than this? It WASpossible, as you shall now see.

  "I had another reason for suspecting the deceased woman," he said,"which appears to me to have been stronger still. Who would be the veryperson to help Miss Verinder in raising money privately on the Diamond?Rosanna Spearman. No young lady in Miss Verinder's position could managesuch a risky matter as that by herself. A go-between she must have, andwho so fit, I ask again, as Rosanna Spearman? Your ladyship's deceasedhousemaid was at the top of her profession when she was a thief. She hadrelations, to my certain knowledge, with one of the few men in London(in the money-lending line) who would advance a large sum on such anotable jewel as the Moonstone, without asking awkward questions, orinsisting on awkward conditions. Bear this in mind, my lady; and now letme show you how my suspicions have been justified by Rosanna's own acts,and by the plain inferences to be drawn from them."

  He thereupon passed the whole of Rosanna's proceedings under review. Youare already as well acquainted with those proceedings as I am; and youwill understand how unanswerably this part o
f his report fixed the guiltof being concerned in the disappearance of the Moonstone on the memoryof the poor dead girl. Even my mistress was daunted by what he said now.She made him no answer when he had done. It didn't seem to matter to theSergeant whether he was answered or not. On he went (devil take him!),just as steady as ever.

  "Having stated the whole case as I understand it," he said, "I have onlyto tell your ladyship, now, what I propose to do next. I see two ways ofbringing this inquiry successfully to an end. One of those ways I lookupon as a certainty. The other, I admit, is a bold experiment, andnothing more. Your ladyship shall decide. Shall we take the certaintyfirst?"

  My mistress made him a sign to take his own way, and choose for himself.

  "Thank you," said the Sergeant. "We'll begin with the certainty, as yourladyship is so good as to leave it to me. Whether Miss Verinder remainsat Frizinghall, or whether she returns here, I propose, in either case,to keep a careful watch on all her proceedings--on the people she sees,on the rides and walks she may take, and on the letters she may writeand receive."

  "What next?" asked my mistress.

  "I shall next," answered the Sergeant, "request your ladyship's leave tointroduce into the house, as a servant in the place of Rosanna Spearman,a woman accustomed to private inquiries of this sort, for whosediscretion I can answer."

  "What next?" repeated my mistress.

  "Next," proceeded the Sergeant, "and last, I propose to send one ofmy brother-officers to make an arrangement with that money-lender inLondon, whom I mentioned just now as formerly acquainted with RosannaSpearman--and whose name and address, your ladyship may rely on it, havebeen communicated by Rosanna to Miss Verinder. I don't deny that thecourse of action I am now suggesting will cost money, and consume time.But the result is certain. We run a line round the Moonstone, and wedraw that line closer and closer till we find it in Miss Verinder'spossession, supposing she decides to keep it. If her debts press, andshe decides on sending it away, then we have our man ready, and we meetthe Moonstone on its arrival in London."

  To hear her own daughter made the subject of such a proposal as this,stung my mistress into speaking angrily for the first time.

  "Consider your proposal declined, in every particular," she said. "Andgo on to your other way of bringing the inquiry to an end."

  "My other way," said the Sergeant, going on as easy as ever, "is to trythat bold experiment to which I have alluded. I think I have formed apretty correct estimate of Miss Verinder's temperament. She is quitecapable (according to my belief) of committing a daring fraud. But sheis too hot and impetuous in temper, and too little accustomed to deceitas a habit, to act the hypocrite in small things, and to restrainherself under all provocations. Her feelings, in this case, haverepeatedly got beyond her control, at the very time when it was plainlyher interest to conceal them. It is on this peculiarity in her characterthat I now propose to act. I want to give her a great shock suddenly,under circumstances that will touch her to the quick. In plain English,I want to tell Miss Verinder, without a word of warning, of Rosanna'sdeath--on the chance that her own better feelings will hurry herinto making a clean breast of it. Does your ladyship accept thatalternative?"

  My mistress astonished me beyond all power of expression. She answeredhim on the instant:

  "Yes; I do."

  "The pony-chaise is ready," said the Sergeant. "I wish your ladyshipgood morning."

  My lady held up her hand, and stopped him at the door.

  "My daughter's better feelings shall be appealed to, as you propose,"she said. "But I claim the right, as her mother, of putting her tothe test myself. You will remain here, if you please; and I will go toFrizinghall."

  For once in his life, the great Cuff stood speechless with amazement,like an ordinary man.

  My mistress rang the bell, and ordered her water-proof things. It wasstill pouring with rain; and the close carriage had gone, as you know,with Miss Rachel to Frizinghall. I tried to dissuade her ladyship fromfacing the severity of the weather. Quite useless! I asked leave togo with her, and hold the umbrella. She wouldn't hear of it. Thepony-chaise came round, with the groom in charge. "You may rely ontwo things," she said to Sergeant Cuff, in the hall. "I will try theexperiment on Miss Verinder as boldly as you could try it yourself. AndI will inform you of the result, either personally or by letter, beforethe last train leaves for London to-night."

  With that, she stepped into the chaise, and, taking the reins herself,drove off to Frizinghall.