out."

"That is a very comforting opinion for _me_," I said. "I own I should like
to know."

"You would like to know how I can justify it," inter-posed Mr. Bruff. "I
can tell you in two minutes. Understand, in the first place, that I
look at this matter from a lawyer's point of view. It's a question of
evidence, with me. Very well. The evidence breaks down, at the outset,
on one important point."

"On what point?"

"You shall hear. I admit that the mark of the name proves the nightgown
to be yours. I admit that the mark of the paint proves the nightgown
to have made the smear on Rachel's door. But what evidence is there to
prove that you are the person who wore it, on the night when the Diamond
was lost?"

The objection struck me, all the more forcibly that it reflected an
objection which I had felt myself.

"As to this," pursued the lawyer taking up Rosanna Spearman's
confession, "I can understand that the letter is a distressing one to
YOU. I can understand that you may hesitate to analyse it from a purely
impartial point of view. But I am not in your position. I can bring my
professional experience to bear on this document, just as I should bring
it to bear on any other. Without alluding to the woman's career as a
thief, I will merely remark that her letter proves her to have been an
adept at deception, on her own showing; and I argue from that, that I am
justified in suspecting her of not having told the whole truth. I won't
start any theory, at present, as to what she may or may not have done.
I will only say that, if Rachel has suspected you ON THE EVIDENCE OF THE
NIGHTGOWN ONLY, the chances are ninety-nine to a hundred that Rosanna
Spearman was the person who showed it to her. In that case, there is the
woman's letter, confessing that she was jealous of Rachel, confessing
that she changed the roses, confessing that she saw a glimpse of hope
for herself, in the prospect of a quarrel between Rachel and you. I
don't stop to ask who took the Moonstone (as a means to her end,
Rosanna Spearman would have taken fifty Moonstones)--I only say that
the disappearance of the jewel gave this reclaimed thief who was in love
with you, an opportunity of setting you and Rachel at variance for the
rest of your lives. She had not decided on destroying herself, THEN,
remember; and, having the opportunity, I distinctly assert that it was
in her character, and in her position at the time, to take it. What do
you say to that?"