Asked again, she had said: "I won't, because I won't.

I must yield to force if you use it, but I will yield to nothing else." I understood my lady's disinclination to face Sergeant Cuff with such an answer from her daughter as that.

If I had not been too old for the amiable weaknesses of youth, I believe I should have blushed at the notion of facing him myself.
"Any news of Miss Verinder's keys ?" asked the Sergeant.
"My young lady refuses to have her wardrobe examined." "Ah!" said the Sergeant.
His voice was not quite in such a perfect state of discipline as his face.

When he said "Ah!" he said it in the tone of a man who had heard something which he expected to hear.

He half angered and half frightened me--why, I couldn't tell, but he did it.
"Must the search be given up ?" I asked.
"Yes," said the Sergeant, "the search must be given up, because your young lady refuses to submit to it like the rest.