"Suppose we are ?" "If I was a Yorkshireman," proceeded the Sergeant, taking my arm, "I would lay you an even sovereign, Mr.Betteredge, that your young lady has suddenly resolved to leave the house.

If I won on that event, I should offer to lay another sovereign, that the idea has occurred to her within the last hour." The first of the Sergeant's guesses startled me.
The second mixed itself up somehow in my head with the report we had heard from the policeman, that Rosanna Spearman had returned from the sands with in the last hour.

The two together had a curious effect on me as we went in to supper.

I shook off Sergeant Cuff's arm, and, forgetting my manners, pushed by him through the door to make my own inquiries for myself.
Samuel, the footman, was the first person I met in the passage.
"Her ladyship is waiting to see you and Sergeant Cuff," he said, before I could put any questions to him.
"How long has she been waiting ?" asked the Sergeant's voice behind me.
"For the last hour, sir." There it was again! Rosanna had come back; Miss Rachel had taken some resolution out of the common; and my lady had been waiting to see the Sergeant--all within the last hour! It was not pleasant to find these very different persons and things linking themselves together in this way.

I went on upstairs, without looking at Sergeant Cuff, or speaking to him.