It is very disgraceful, but it is not the less true, that I had another attack of the detective-fever, when he said those last words.

I forgot that I hated Sergeant Cuff.

I seized him confidentially by the arm.

I said, "For goodness' sake, tell us what you are going to do with the servants now ?" The great Cuff stood stock still, and addressed himself in a kind of melancholy rapture to the empty air.
"If this man," said the Sergeant (apparently meaning me), "only understood the growing of roses he would be the most completely perfect character on the face of creation!" After that strong expression of feeling, he sighed, and put his arm through mine.

"This is how it stands," he said, dropping down again to business.