betrays an incomprehensible resentment against Mr. Blake, Mr. Superintendent, and myself—­otherwise, the very three people who have all, in their different ways, been trying to help her to recover her lost jewel.  Having brought my inquiry to that point—­then, my lady, and not till then, I begin to look back into my own mind for my own experience.  My own experience explains Miss Verinder’s otherwise incomprehensible conduct.  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 not mean—­that the Diamond must be secretly pledged to pay them.  That is the conclusion which my experience draws from plain facts.  What does your ladyship’s experience say against it?”

“What I have said already,” answered my mistress.  “The circumstances have misled you.”

I said nothing on my side.  Robinson Crusoe—­God knows how—­had got into my muddled old head.  If Sergeant Cuff had found himself, at that moment, transported to a desert island, without a man Friday to keep him company, or a ship to take him off—­he would have found himself exactly where 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 of you—­which is a great comfort—­are, in this respect, much the same as I am.)

Sergeant Cuff went on: 

“Right or wrong, my lady,” he said, “having drawn my conclusion, the next thing to do was to put it to the test.  I suggested to your ladyship the examination of all the wardrobes in the house.  It was a means of finding the article of dress which had, in all probability, made the smear; and it was a means of putting my conclusion to the test.  How did it turn out?  Your ladyship consented; Mr. Blake consented; Mr. Ablewhite consented.  Miss Verinder alone stopped the whole proceeding by refusing point-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 your hearing, I told the young lady that her leaving the house (as things were 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.  You saw yourself that, so far from forgiving Mr. Blake for having done more than all the rest of you to put the clue into my hands, she publicly insulted Mr. Blake, on the steps of her mother’s house.  What do these things mean?  If Miss Verinder is not privy to the suppression of the Diamond, what do these things mean?”