The Moonstone

"Mr. Franklin Blake's debts," I remarked, "are matters of family

notoriety."

"And Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite's debts have not arrived at that stage of

development yet. Quite true. But there happen to be two difficulties in

the way of your theory, Miss Clack. I manage Franklin Blake's affairs,

and I beg to inform you that the vast majority of his creditors (knowing

his father to be a rich man) are quite content to charge interest

on their debts, and to wait for their money. There is the first

difficulty--which is tough enough. You will find the second tougher

still. I have it on the authority of Lady Verinder herself, that her

daughter was ready to marry Franklin Blake, before that infernal Indian

Diamond disappeared from the house. She had drawn him on and put him off

again, with the coquetry of a young girl. But she had confessed to her

mother that she loved cousin Franklin, and her mother had trusted

cousin Franklin with the secret. So there he was, Miss Clack, with his

creditors content to wait, and with the certain prospect before him of

marrying an heiress. By all means consider him a scoundrel; but tell me,

if you please, why he should steal the Moonstone?"

"The human heart is unsearchable," I said gently. "Who is to fathom it?"

"In other words, ma'am--though he hadn't the shadow of a reason for

taking the Diamond--he might have taken it, nevertheless, through

natural depravity. Very well. Say he did. Why the devil----"

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Bruff. If I hear the devil referred to in that

manner, I must leave the room."

"I beg YOUR pardon, Miss Clack--I'll be more careful in my choice

of language for the future. All I meant to ask was this. Why--even

supposing he did take the Diamond--should Franklin Blake make himself

the most prominent person in the house in trying to recover it? You may

tell me he cunningly did that to divert suspicion from himself. I answer

that he had no need to divert suspicion--because nobody suspected him.

He first steals the Moonstone (without the slightest reason) through

natural depravity; and he then acts a part, in relation to the loss of

the jewel, which there is not the slightest necessity to act, and which

leads to his mortally offending the young lady who would otherwise have

married him. That is the monstrous proposition which you are driven to

assert, if you attempt to associate the disappearance of the Moonstone

with Franklin Blake. No, no, Miss Clack! After what has passed here

to-day, between us two, the dead-lock, in this case, is complete.

Rachel's own innocence is (as her mother knows, and as I know) beyond

a doubt. Mr. Ablewhite's innocence is equally certain--or Rachel would

never have testified to it. And Franklin Blake's innocence, as you have

just seen, unanswerably asserts itself. On the one hand, we are morally

certain of all these things. And, on the other hand, we are equally sure

that somebody has brought the Moonstone to London, and that Mr. Luker,

or his banker, is in private possession of it at this moment. What is

the use of my experience, what is the use of any person's experience,

in such a case as that? It baffles me; it baffles you, it baffles

everybody."