`This is all I have to say about myself, reckoning from the morning when I first saw you, to the morning when the alarm was raised in the house that the Diamond was lost.

`I was so aggravated by the foolish talk among the women servants, all wondering who was to be suspected first; and I was so angry with you (knowing no better at that time) for the pains you took in hunting for the jewel, and sending for the police, that I kept as much as possible away by myself, until later in the day, when the officer from Frizinghall came to the house.

`Mr. Seegrave began, as you may remember, by setting a guard on the women's bedrooms; and the women all followed him upstairs in a rage, to know what he meant by the insult he had put on them. I went with the rest, because if I had done anything different from the rest, Mr. Seegrave was the sort of man who would have suspected me directly. We found him in Miss Rachel's room. He told us he wouldn't have a lot of women there; and he pointed to the smear on the painted door, and said some of our petticoats had done the mischief, and sent us all downstairs again.

`After leaving Miss Rachel's room, I stopped a moment on one of the landings, by myself, to see if I had got the paint-stain by any chance on my gown. Penelope Betteredge (the only one of the women with whom I was on friendly terms) passed, and noticed what I was about.

`"You needn't trouble yourself, Rosanna," she said. "The paint on Miss Rachel's door has been dry for hours. If Mr. See-grave hadn't set a watch on our bedrooms, I might have told him as much. I don't know what you think--I was never so insulted before in my life!"

`Penelope was a hot-tempered girl. I quieted her, and brought her back to what she had said about the paint on the door having been dry for hours.

`"How do you know that?" I asked.

`"I was with Miss Rachel, and Mr. Franklin, all yesterday morning," Penelope said, "mixing the colours, while they finished the door. I heard Miss Rachel ask whether the door would be dry that evening, in time for the birthday company to see it. And Mr. Franklin shook his head, and said it wouldn't be dry in less than twelve hours. It was long past luncheon-time--it was three o'clock before they had done. What does your arithmetic say, Rosanna? Mine says the door was dry by three this morning."

`"Did some of the ladies go upstairs yesterday evening to see it?" I asked. "I thought I heard Miss Rachel warning them to keep clear of the door."

`"None of the ladies made the smear," Penelope answered. "I left Miss Rachel in bed at twelve last night. And I noticed the door, and there was nothing wrong with it then."

`"Oughtn't you to mention this to Mr. Seegrave, Penelope?"

`"I wouldn't say a word to help Mr. Seegrave for anything that could be offered to me!"

`She went to her work, and I went to mine.

`My work, sir, was to make your bed, and to put your room tidy. It was the happiest hour I had in the whole day. I used to kiss the pillow on which your head had rested all night. No matter who has done it since, you have never had your clothes folded as nicely as I folded them for you. Of all the little knick- knacks in your dressing-case, there wasn't one that had so much as a speak on it. You never noticed it, any more than you noticed me. I beg your pardon; I am forgetting myself. I will make haste, and go on again.

`Well, I went in that morning to do my work in your room. There was your nightgown tossed across the bed, just as you had thrown it off. I took it up to fold it--and I saw the stain of the paint from Miss Rachel's door!