前面的人已经把消息传开了。我们到家时，仆人们都惊慌失措。经过女主人的房门时，门从里面猛然被撞开。女主人冲出来，站在我们中间（弗兰克林先生跟在后面，想安抚她却徒劳无功），她已被这可怕的灾祸吓得魂不附体。
“你要为此负责！”她喊道，疯狂地朝警佐挥舞着手。“加百列！给那个混蛋他的钱——让我别再看见他！”
我们之中唯有警佐能应付她——因为唯有他还保持镇定。
“夫人，我跟您一样，对这场令人悲痛的不幸并不负有责任，”他说。“倘若从现在起半小时后，您仍坚持要我离开这所宅子，我愿意接受夫人的辞退，但不会收夫人的钱。”
这话说得十分恭敬，但同时也十分坚定——对女主人和我都产生了效果。她任由弗兰克林先生扶她回到房里。门在两人身后关上时，警佐以他那惯于观察的目光扫视着女仆们，注意到旁人只是害怕，而潘尼洛普却在落泪。“等你父亲换下湿衣服，”他对她说，“来你父亲的房里跟我们说说话。”
半小时还没到，我已换上了干衣服，并把我能借给警佐更换的衣服给了他。潘尼洛普进来见我们，听警佐要跟她说什么。我从未像那一刻那样深切地感受到我有一个多么孝顺的好女儿。我把她拉到跟前，让她坐在我膝上，祈求上帝保佑她。她把头埋在我胸前，双臂搂住我的脖子——我们沉默了一会儿。我想，那可怜的已故姑娘一定压在我女儿和我的心头上。警佐走到窗前，站在那里望着外面。我觉得应该感谢他这样体谅我们父女俩——我这样做了。
上流社会的人独享种种奢侈——其中包括纵情宣泄情感的奢侈。下层社会的人没有这种特权。那饶过我们主人们的“必要”，对我们却毫不怜悯。我们学会把情感咽回肚里，尽可能耐心地继续尽自己的本分。我不是抱怨——只是注意到这一事实。潘尼洛普和我准备好了，等警佐那边也准备好。问她是否知道是什么导致她的同伴女仆自尽，我女儿回答（正如您预料的那样）：是因为爱慕弗兰克林·布雷克先生。接着问她有没有把这个想法告诉过别人，潘尼洛普回答：“为了罗珊娜的缘故，我没有告诉任何人。”我觉得有必要补充一句。我说：“也为了弗兰克林先生的缘故，我的孩子。倘若罗珊娜确实是为他而死，那并不是他所知晓的，也不是他的过错。让他今天离开这宅子吧，如果他真要离开的话，不必承受知道真相的无谓痛苦。”警佐说：“说得对。”然后又沉默了；在我看来，他是在将潘尼洛普的想法与他自己的某个藏在心里的念头作比较。
半小时结束时，女主人的铃声响了。
去应铃的路上，我遇到弗兰克林先生从姨妈的书房里出来。他说夫人已准备好接见警佐——和上次一样由我在场——他又说他本人想先跟警佐说两句话。回我房间的路上，他停下来，看了看门厅里的火车时刻表。
“您真的要离开我们吗，先生？”我问。“只要您给蕾切尔小姐一些时间，她肯定会恢复正常的。”
“等她听说我已经走了，再也见不到我了，”弗兰克林先生答道，“她就会恢复正常的。”
我以为他是因为小姐对他的态度而心怀怨恨。但并非如此。女主人从警察第一次进这宅子时就注意到，只要一提他的名字，就足以让蕾切尔小姐大发脾气。他太钟爱他表妹了，不愿对自己承认这个事实，直到她驱车去姨妈家时真相无情地逼到他面前。一旦眼睛以您所知的那种残酷方式睁开，弗兰克林先生便下了决心——任何一个有骨气的男人都会下的那个决心——离开这宅子。
他要对警佐说的话是在我面前讲的。他说夫人愿意承认自己方才说话过于急躁。他问警佐是否可以——既然如此——收下酬金，让钻石的事情就停在目前的状态。警佐回答：“不，先生。我的酬金是替我履行职务而付的。在职务完成之前，我不收。”
“我不明白您的意思，”弗兰克林先生说。
“我来解释，先生，”警佐说。“我初来之时，承诺对失窃钻石之事提供必要的线索。我现在已准备好，正在等待兑现我的诺言。等我把目前案情的状况向维林德夫人陈述清楚，并坦率地告诉她该采取什么行动来追回月长石，责任就不在我肩上了。在那之后，让夫人自行决定是让我继续还是不让。到那时，我做了我承诺要做的事——然后我才收酬金。”
警佐用这番话提醒我们：即使在侦缉警察当中，一个人也可能有名誉要维护。
他所持的看法显然是正确的，没有什么可再说的。我起身要领他去夫人的房间时，他问弗兰克林先生是否希望在场。弗兰克林先生回答：“除非维林德夫人希望如此。”我跟着警佐出门时，他低声对我说：“我知道那人要对蕾切尔说什么；我太爱她了，听不下去而会控制不住脾气。让我一个人待着吧。”
我把他留在那里，够凄凉的——靠在我窗台上，双手掩面，潘尼洛普从门缝里偷看，想去安慰他。若换作弗兰克林先生的处境，我会叫她进来。当你被一个女人亏待时，把这告诉另一个女人是莫大的安慰——因为十有八九，另一个女人总会站在你这边。也许，我转过身去之后，他确实把她叫进去了？若真如此，那么我女儿在安慰弗兰克林·布雷克先生这件事上会不遗余力——这样说只是给她应得的公道。
与此同时，警佐和我前往夫人的房间。
我们上次与她谈话时，她不太愿意把目光从桌上的书本上抬起来。这回有了好转。她用与警佐一样沉稳的目光迎着他的目光。家族的精神在她脸上的每一道纹路中都显现出来；我知道，当像女主人这样的女人打定主意要听他说出最坏的话时，警佐会遇到对手了。
Those in front had spread the news before us. We found the servants in
a state of panic. As we passed my lady’s door, it was thrown open
violently from the inner side. My mistress came out among us (with Mr.
Franklin following, and trying vainly to compose her), quite beside
herself with the horror of the thing.
“You are answerable for this!” she cried out, threatening the Sergeant
wildly with her hand. “Gabriel! give that wretch his money—and release
me from the sight of him!”
The Sergeant was the only one among us who was fit to cope with
her—being the only one among us who was in possession of himself.
“I am no more answerable for this distressing calamity, my lady, than
you are,” he said. “If, in half an hour from this, you still insist on
my leaving the house, I will accept your ladyship’s dismissal, but not
your ladyship’s money.”
It was spoken very respectfully, but very firmly at the same time—and
it had its effect on my mistress as well as on me. She suffered Mr.
Franklin to lead her back into the room. As the door closed on the two,
the Sergeant, looking about among the women-servants in his observant
way, noticed that while all the rest were merely frightened, Penelope
was in tears. “When your father has changed his wet clothes,” he said
to her, “come and speak to us, in your father’s room.”
Before the half-hour was out, I had got my dry clothes on, and had lent
Sergeant Cuff such change of dress as he required. Penelope came in to
us to hear what the Sergeant wanted with her. I don’t think I ever felt
what a good dutiful daughter I had, so strongly as I felt it at that
moment. I took her and sat her on my knee and I prayed God bless her.
She hid her head on my bosom, and put her arms round my neck—and we
waited a little while in silence. The poor dead girl must have been at
the bottom of it, I think, with my daughter and with me. The Sergeant
went to the window, and stood there looking out. I thought it right to
thank him for considering us both in this way—and I did.
People in high life have all the luxuries to themselves—among others,
the luxury of indulging their feelings. People in low life have no such
privilege. Necessity, which spares our betters, has no pity on _us_. We
learn to put our feelings back into ourselves, and to jog on with our
duties as patiently as may be. I don’t complain of this—I only notice
it. Penelope and I were ready for the Sergeant, as soon as the Sergeant
was ready on his side. Asked if she knew what had led her
fellow-servant to destroy herself, my daughter answered (as you will
foresee) that it was for love of Mr. Franklin Blake. Asked next, if she
had mentioned this notion of hers to any other person, Penelope
answered, “I have not mentioned it, for Rosanna’s sake.” I felt it
necessary to add a word to this. I said, “And for Mr. Franklin’s sake,
my dear, as well. If Rosanna _has_ died for love of him, it is not with
his knowledge or by his fault. Let him leave the house today, if he
does leave it, without the useless pain of knowing the truth.” Sergeant
Cuff said, “Quite right,” and fell silent again; comparing Penelope’s
notion (as it seemed to me) with some other notion of his own which he
kept to himself.
At the end of the half-hour, my mistress’s bell rang.
On my way to answer it, I met Mr. Franklin coming out of his aunt’s
sitting-room. He mentioned that her ladyship was ready to see Sergeant
Cuff—in my presence as before—and he added that he himself wanted to
say two words to the Sergeant first. On our way back to my room, he
stopped, and looked at the railway time-table in the hall.
“Are you really going to leave us, sir?” I asked. “Miss Rachel will
surely come right again, if you only give her time?”
“She will come right again,” answered Mr. Franklin, “when she hears
that I have gone away, and that she will see me no more.”
I thought he spoke in resentment of my young lady’s treatment of him.
But it was not so. My mistress had noticed, from the time when the
police first came into the house, that the bare mention of him was
enough to set Miss Rachel’s temper in a flame. He had been too fond of
his cousin to like to confess this to himself, until the truth had been
forced on him, when she drove off to her aunt’s. His eyes once opened
in that cruel way which you know of, Mr. Franklin had taken his
resolution—the one resolution which a man of any spirit _could_ take—to
leave the house.
What he had to say to the Sergeant was spoken in my presence. He
described her ladyship as willing to acknowledge that she had spoken
over-hastily. And he asked if Sergeant Cuff would consent—in that
case—to accept his fee, and to leave the matter of the Diamond where
the matter stood now. The Sergeant answered, “No, sir. My fee is paid
me for doing my duty. I decline to take it, until my duty is done.”
“I don’t understand you,” says Mr. Franklin.
“I’ll explain myself, sir,” says the Sergeant. “When I came here, I
undertook to throw the necessary light on the matter of the missing
Diamond. I am now ready, and waiting to redeem my pledge. When I have
stated the case to Lady Verinder as the case now stands, and when I
have told her plainly what course of action to take for the recovery of
the Moonstone, the responsibility will be off my shoulders. Let her
ladyship decide, after that, whether she does, or does not, allow me to
go on. I shall then have done what I undertook to do—and I’ll take my
fee.”
In those words Sergeant Cuff reminded us that, even in the Detective
Police, a man may have a reputation to lose.
The view he took was so plainly the right one, that there was no more
to be said. As I rose to conduct him to my lady’s room, he asked if Mr.
Franklin wished to be present. Mr. Franklin answered, “Not unless Lady
Verinder desires it.” He added, in a whisper to me, as I was following
the Sergeant out, “I know what that man is going to say about Rachel;
and I am too fond of her to hear it, and keep my temper. Leave me by
myself.”
I left him, miserable enough, leaning on the sill of my window, with
his face hidden in his hands and Penelope peeping through the door,
longing to comfort him. In Mr. Franklin’s place, I should have called
her in. When you are ill-used by one woman, there is great comfort in
telling it to another—because, nine times out of ten, the other always
takes your side. Perhaps, when my back was turned, he did call her in?
In that case it is only doing my daughter justice to declare that she
would stick at nothing, in the way of comforting Mr. Franklin Blake.
In the meantime, Sergeant Cuff and I proceeded to my lady’s room.
At the last conference we had held with her, we had found her not over
willing to lift her eyes from the book which she had on the table. On
this occasion there was a change for the better. She met the Sergeant’s
eye with an eye that was as steady as his own. The family spirit showed
itself in every line of her face; and I knew that Sergeant Cuff would
meet his match, when a woman like my mistress was strung up to hear the
worst he could say to her.
