I had a restless night, considering what I ought to do next.  How my reflections ended, and how thoroughly well founded my distrust of Mr. Ablewhite proved to be, are items of information which (as I am told) have already been put tidily in their proper places, by that exemplary person, Miss Clack.  I have only to add—­in completion of her narrative—­that Miss Verinder found the quiet and repose which she sadly needed, poor thing, in my house at Hampstead.  She honoured us by making a long stay.  My wife and daughters were charmed with her; and, when the executors decided on the appointment of a new guardian, I feel sincere pride and pleasure in recording that my guest and my family parted like old friends, on either side.

CHAPTER II

The next thing I have to do, is to present such additional information as I possess on the subject of the Moonstone, or, to speak more correctly, on the subject of the Indian plot to steal the Diamond.  The little that I have to tell is (as I think I have already said) of some importance, nevertheless, in respect of its bearing very remarkably on events which are still to come.

About a week or ten days after Miss Verinder had left us, one of my clerks entered the private room at my office, with a card in his hand, and informed me that a gentleman was below, who wanted to speak to me.

I looked at the card.  There was a foreign name written on it, which has escaped my memory.  It was followed by a line written in English at the bottom of the card, which I remember perfectly well: 

“Recommended by Mr. Septimus Luker.”

The audacity of a person in Mr. Luker’s position presuming to recommend anybody to me, took me so completely by surprise, that I sat silent for the moment, wondering whether my own eyes had not deceived me.  The clerk, observing my bewilderment, favoured me with the result of his own observation of the stranger who was waiting downstairs.

“He is rather a remarkable-looking man, sir.  So dark in the complexion that we all set him down in the office for an Indian, or something of that sort.”

Associating the clerk’s idea with the line inscribed on the card in my hand, I thought it possible that the Moonstone might be at the bottom of Mr. Luker’s recommendation, and of the stranger’s visit at my office.  To the astonishment of my clerk, I at once decided on granting an interview to the gentleman below.

In justification of the highly unprofessional sacrifice to mere curiosity which I thus made, permit me to remind anybody who may read these lines, that no living person (in England, at any rate) can claim to have had such an intimate connexion with the romance of the Indian Diamond as mine has been.  I was trusted with the secret of Colonel Herncastle’s plan for escaping assassination.  I received the Colonel’s letters, periodically reporting himself a living man.