gain 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
connexion 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 we
all thought she would faint, at the moment when she checked herself in
the middle of her question. Dear Mr. Godfrey made a second attempt to
leave his chair. My aunt entreated her to say no more. I followed my
aunt with a modest medicinal peace-offering, in the shape of a bottle
of salts. We none of us produced the slightest effect on her. "Godfrey,
stay where you are. Mamma, there is not the least reason to be alarmed
about me. Clack, you're dying to hear the end of it--I won't faint,
expressly to oblige YOU."

Those were the exact words she used--taken down in my diary the moment
I got home. But, oh, don't let us judge! My Christian friends, don't let
us judge!