in that Sergeant Cuff's suspicions of Rosanna had been roused
by something that he had found out at his examination of the servants in
my room. Now, the only two servants (excepting Rosanna herself) who had
remained under examination for any length of time, were my lady's own
maid and the first housemaid, those two being also the women who had
taken the lead in persecuting their unfortunate fellow-servant from the
first. Reaching these conclusions, I looked in on them, casually as
it might be, in the servants' hall, and, finding tea going forward,
instantly invited myself to that meal. (For, NOTA BENE, a drop of tea is
to a woman's tongue what a drop of oil is to a wasting lamp.)

My reliance on the tea-pot, as an ally, did not go unrewarded. In less
than half an hour I knew as much as the Sergeant himself.

My lady's maid and the housemaid, had, it appeared, neither of them
believed in Rosanna's illness of the previous day. These two devils--I
ask your pardon; but how else CAN you describe a couple of spiteful
women?--had stolen up-stairs, at intervals during the Thursday
afternoon; had tried Rosanna's door, and found it locked; had knocked,
and not been answered; had listened, and not heard a sound inside. When
the girl had come down to tea, and had been sent up, still out of sorts,
to bed again, the two devils aforesaid had tried her door once more, and
found it locked; had looked at the keyhole, and found it stopped up; had
seen a light under the door at midnight, and had heard the crackling of
a fire (a fire in a servant's bed-room in the month of June!) at four
in the morning. All this they had told Sergeant Cuff, who, in return for
their anxiety to enlighten him, had eyed them with sour and suspicious
looks, and had shown them plainly that he didn't believe either one or
the other. Hence, the unfavourable reports of him which these two women
had brought out with them from the examination. Hence, also (without
reckoning the influence of the tea-pot), their readiness to let their
tongues run to any length on the subject of the Sergeant's ungracious
behaviour to them.

Having had some experience of the great Cuff's round-about ways, and
having last seen him evidently bent on following Rosanna privately when
she went out for her walk, it seemed clear to me that he had thought it
unadvisable to let the lady's maid and the housemaid know how materially
they had helped him. They were just the sort of women, if he had t