Dedlock, Baronet, it's altogether impossible. What I have got
to say, is about her Ladyship. She is the pivot it all turns on.«
    »Officer,« retorts Sir Leicester, with a fiery eye, and a quivering lip,
»you know your duty. Do your duty; but be careful not to overstep it. I would
not suffer it. I would not endure it. You bring my Lady's name into this
communication, upon your responsibility - upon your responsibility. My Lady's
name is not a name for common persons to trifle with!«
    »Sir Leicester Dedlock, Baronet, I say what I must say; and no more.«
    »I hope it may prove so. Very well. Go on. Go on, sir!«
    Glancing at the angry eyes which now avoid him, and at the angry figure
trembling from head to foot, yet striving to be still, Mr. Bucket feels his way
with his forefinger, and in a low voice proceeds.
    »Sir Leicester Dedlock, Baronet, it becomes my duty to tell you that the
deceased Mr. Tulkinghorn long entertained mistrusts and suspicions of Lady
Dedlock.«
    »If he had dared to breathe them to me, sir - which he never did - I would
have killed him myself!« exclaims Sir Leicester, striking his hand upon the
table. But, in the very heat and fury of the act, he stops, fixed by the knowing
eyes of Mr. Bucket, whose forefinger is slowly going, and who, with mingled
confidence and patience, shakes his head.
    »Sir Leicester Dedlock, the deceased Mr. Tulkinghorn was deep and close; and
what he fully had in his mind in the very beginning, I can't quite take upon
myself to say. But I know from his lips, that he long ago suspected Lady Dedlock
of having discovered, through the sight of some handwriting - in this very
house, and when you yourself, Sir Leicester Dedlock, were present - the
existence, in great poverty, of a certain person, who had been her lover before
you courted her, and who ought to have been her husband;« Mr. Bucket stops, and
deliberately repeats, »ought to have been her husband; not a doubt about it. I
know from his lips, that when that person soon afterwards died, he suspected
Lady Dedlock of visiting his wretched lodging, and his wretched grave, alone and
in secret. I know from my own inquiries, and through my eyes and ears, that Lady
Dedlock did make such