But it was neither my place nor my wish to direct suspicion against a poor girl, whose honesty had been above all doubt as long as I had known her.

The matron at the Reformatory had reported her to my lady as a sincerely penitent and thoroughly trustworthy girl.

It was the Superintendent's business to discover reason for suspecting her first--and then, and not till then, it would be my duty to tell him how she came into my lady's service.
"All our people have excellent characters," I said.

"And all have deserved the trust their mistress has placed in them." After that, there was but one thing left for Mr.Seegrave to do--namely, to set to work, and tackle the servants' characters himself.
One after another, they were examined.

One after another, they proved to have nothing to say--and said it (so far as the women were concerned) at great length, and with a very angry sense of the embargo laid on their bed-rooms.