"Now then," said Norwood, taking a seat, "I want you to answer me a few questions."
Rondalina looked frightened, and said, "Yes, sir," in a mechanical manner.
"First," asked Norwood, "do you dust this room and put things straight?"
"I do, sir."
"Do you remember seeing a broken dagger about the place--a blade and a handle?"
Rondalina twisted her apron up into a knot and thought hard, then intimated she had seen it.
"Oh!--and when did you see it?"
"About a week or so ago, sir," replied Rondalina. "Mr. Desmond, sir, he comes in at five o'clock when I was a'layin' of the cloth for dinner, and ses he 'I ain't a-goin' to stay in for dinner 'cause I'm a-goin' h'out,' then he takes the knife from his pocket, being broken in two, and throws the bits on the table and goes out to put his clothes on. I takes the dinner things down stairs, and when I comes up he were gone, so I sets to work an' tidies up the room."
"Was the dagger still on the table?"
"The knife, sir," corrected Rondalina, "yes, sir, it were, and I puts the bits in the h'ornaments so as to keep 'em out of the way of the children, an' I 'ope it weren't wrong, sir."