First Period First Narrative - Chapter XIV

The nearest way to the garden, on going out of my lady's sitting-room,
was by the shrubbery path, which you already know of. For the sake of
your better understanding of what is now to come, I may add to this,
that the shrubbery path was Mr. Franklin's favourite walk. When he was
out in the grounds, and when we failed to find him anywhere else, we
generally found him here.

I am afraid I must own that I am rather an obstinate old man. The more
firmly Sergeant Cuff kept his thoughts shut up from me, the more
firmly I persisted in trying to look in at them. As we turned into the
shrubbery path, I attempted to circumvent him in another way.

"As things are now," I said, "if I was in your place, I should be at my
wits' end."

"If you were in my place," answered the Sergeant, "you would have formed
an opinion--and, as things are now, any doubt you might previously have
felt about your own conclusions would be completely set at rest. Never
mind for the present what those conclusions are, Mr. Betteredge. I
haven't brought you out here to draw me like a badger; I have brought
you out here to ask for some information. You might have given it to me
no doubt, in the house, instead of out of it. But doors and listeners
have a knack of getting together; and, in my line of life, we cultivate
a healthy taste for the open air."