Let
us get at that first.
Has there ever been a quarrel between them?"
I told him of the quarrel, and of how Josephine had looked and
talked when she showed me her cheek.
"Yes," he said, "that is a strong motive for revenge with a
naturally pitiless, vindictive woman. But is that all? Had your
mistress any hold over her? Is there any self-interest mixed up
along with this motive of vengeance? Think a little, William. Has
anything ever happened in the house to compromise this woman, or
to make her fancy herself compromised?"
The remembrance of my mistress's lost trinkets and handkerchiefs,
which later and greater troubles had put out of my mind, flashed
back into my memory while he spoke. I told him immediately of the
alarm in the house when the loss was discovered.
"Did your mistress suspect Josephine and question her?" he asked,
eagerly.
"No, sir," I replied. "Before she could say a word, Josephine
impudently asked who she suspected, and boldly offered her own
boxes to be searched."
The lawyer's face turned red as scarlet. He jumped out of his
chair, and hit me such a smack on the shoulder that I thought he
had gone mad.
"By Jupiter!" he cried out, "we have got the whip-hand of that
she-devil at last."
I looked at him in astonishment.
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