u, but to let you see that
the object of our investigation is nothing against yourself. Your answers
are important to us; for at present we know no other than yourself, of
whom we can obtain the information we require. I do not conceal this, nor
will I conceal the fact that unless you _do_ answer me, you shall leave
this room for a prison. I told you so before; I repeat it now; I will
_not_ repeat it a third time. I already know enough of the matter on which
I am interrogating you, to be able to detect falsehood in your answers.'

There was something either in the words of the lawyer or in the formation
of her chair that caused Mrs. Blossom to move very uneasily; and at the
same time to cast a glance behind her, as if there existed a strong
connection between her thoughts and the door. She was however used to
trying circumstances, and did not lose her presence of mind. She made no
reply, but sat with every faculty, which long training had sharpened to a
high degree of cunning, on the alert; but she was not a little taken by
surprise when Holmes, after taking from the table a packet of papers,
selected one, and having spent a few minutes in examining it, said to her:

'To convince you that we are perfectly acquainted with the nature of your
dealings with Rust, I will enter into a few details, which may perhaps
enable you to recollect something more. Four years since, on the sixteenth
of December, a man by the name of Blossom, with whom you lived, and whose
name you bear, although you are not his wife, proposed to you to take
charge of two children, a boy and girl. At first you refused, but finally
agreed to do it on receiving five hundred dollars, and the assurance that
no inquiry would be made as to the treatment they received at your hands,
and that whether they lived or died was a matter of indifference to the
person who placed them in your charge, and would not be too closely
investigated. The children came. They were quite young. You had them for a
week, and were then informed that they must go, for a time, to the
country. You asked no questions, but gave them up, and they were sent
away, the money for their support being furnished by the same hand that
threw them upon your mercy. In a year or so they were brought back, and
were again entrusted to you, with instructions to break them down, and if
possible to send them to their graves; but if their bodies were proof
against cruelty, _then_ so to pollute their very sou