`My dear Rachel, they blindfolded me before I could see their faces. I know nothing whatever of the matter. How can I offer an opinion on it?'

Even the angelic gentleness of Mr. Godfrey was, you see, beginning to give way at last under the persecution inflicted on him. Whether unbridled curiosity, or ungovernable dread, dictated Miss Verinder's questions I do not presume to inquire. I only report that, on Mr. Godfrey's attempting to rise, after giving her the answer just described, she actually took him by the two shoulders, and pushed him back into his chair-- Oh, don't say this was immodest! Don't even hint that the recklessness of guilty terror could alone account for such conduct as I have described! We must not judge others. My Christian friends, indeed, indeed, indeed, we must not judge others!

She went on with her questions, unabashed. Earnest Biblical students will perhaps be reminded--as I was reminded--of the blinded children of the devil, who went on with their orgies, unabashed, in the time before the Flood.

`I want to know something about Mr. Luker, Godfrey.'

`I am again unfortunate, Rachel. No man knows less of Mr. Luker than I do.'

`You never saw him before you and he met accidentally at the bank?'

`Never.'

`You have seen him since?'

`Yes. We have been examined together, as well as separately, to assist the police.'

`Mr. Luker was robbed of a receipt which he had got from his banker's--was he not? What was the receipt for?'

`For a valuable gem which he had placed in the safe keeping of the bank.'

`That's what the newspapers say. It may be enough for the general reader; but it is not enough for me. The banker's receipt must have mentioned what the gem was?'

`The banker's receipt, Rachel--as I have heard it described--mentioned nothing of the kind. A valuable gem, belonging to Mr. Luker; deposited by Mr. Luker; sealed with Mr. Luker's seal; and only to be given up on Mr. Luker's personal application. That was the form, and that is all I know about it.'

She waited a moment, after he had said that. She looked at her mother, and sighed. She looked back again at Mr. Godfrey, and went on.

`Some of our private affairs, at home,' she said, `seem to have got into the newspapers?'

`I grieve to say, it is so.'

`And some idle people, perfect strangers to us, are trying to trace a connection between what happened at our house in Yorkshire and what has happened since, here in London?'

`The public curiosity, in certain quarters, is, I fear, taking that turn.'

`The people who say that the three unknown men who ill-used you and Mr. Luker are the three Indians, also say that the valuable gem--'

There she stopped. She had become gradually, within the last few moments, whiter and whiter in the face. The extraordinary blackness of her hair made this paleness, by contrast, so ghastly to look at, that