 him, already on my way to the door; he was observing
(this they afterwards told me) my height and figure, which seemed to catch his
attention all at once.
    »'Tis curious,« said he. »And yet I thought so at the time!«
    My guardian asked him what he meant.
    »Why, sir,« he answered, »when my ill-fortune took me to the dead man's
staircase on the night of his murder, I saw a shape so like Miss Summerson's go
by me in the dark, that I had half a mind to speak to it.«
    For an instant, I felt such a shudder as I never felt before or since, and
hope I shall never feel again.
    »It came down-stairs as I went up,« said the trooper, »and crossed the
moon-lighted window with a loose black mantle on; I noticed a deep fringe to it.
However, it has nothing to do with the present subject, excepting that Miss
Summerson looked so like it at the moment, that it came into my head.«
    I cannot separate and define the feelings that arose in me after this: it is
enough that the vague duty and obligation I had felt upon me from the first of
following the investigation, was, without my distinctly daring to ask myself any
question, increased; and that I was indignantly sure of there being no
possibility of a reason for my being afraid.
    We three went out of the prison, and walked up and down at some short
distance from the gate, which was in a retired place. We had not waited long,
when Mr. and Mrs. Bagnet came out too, and quickly joined us.
    There was a tear in each of Mrs. Bagnet's eyes, and her face was flushed and
hurried. »I didn't let George see what I thought about it, you know, miss,« was
her first remark when she came up; »but he's in a bad way, poor old fellow!«
    »Not with care and prudence, and good help,« said my guardian.
    »A gentleman like you ought to know best, sir,« returned Mrs. Bagnet,
hurriedly drying her eyes on the hem of her grey cloak; »but I am uneasy for
him. He has been so careless, and said so much that he never meant. The
gentlemen of the juries might not understand him as Lignum and me do. And then
such a number of circumstances have happened bad for him
