CHAPTER XXI.
The first words, when we had taken our seats, were spoken by my lady.
"Sergeant Cuff," she said, "there was perhaps some excuse for the inconsiderate manner in which I spoke to you half an hour since.

I have no wish, however, to claim that excuse.

I say, with perfect sincerity, that I regret it, if I wronged you." The grace of voice and manner with which she made him that atonement had its due effect on the Sergeant.

He requested permission to justify himself--putting his justification as an act of respect to my mistress.
It was impossible, he said, that he could be in any way responsible for the calamity, which had shocked us all, for this sufficient reason, that his success in bringing his inquiry to its proper end depended on his neither saying nor doing anything that could alarm Rosanna Spearman.
He appealed to me to testify whether he had, or had not, carried that object out.

I could, and did, bear witness that he had.