The book was read on the 11th of June in the back parlor at Duke Street, and it took two hours. There were four people in the room: Hannah, Mrs. Gill, the Duke of Marchford, and Mr. Sturges, who was Marchford's solicitor, and who did not want to be there.
"Your Grace, I must say at the outset that this is not evidence of anything."
"Read it," said the Duke of Marchford.
Hannah read it aloud because her hand was small and nobody else could make it out, and she read every entry from the 9th of March to the 2nd of June exactly as it stood, including the ones about the sleeves.
"March 9th, Bruton St. B, 31 and 1/2, W 23, underarm 7 1/4. Sleeve to be 3 in. shorter than pattern. She asked twice. Bodice lining to be doubled at the back."
"Doubled why?" said Mr. Sturges.
"Because she asked for it, sir."
"Is that usual?"
"It is not unusual," said Mrs. Gill, "in a lady who does not care to be looked at. I have done it about four hundred times and I have never once asked why and I never shall."
"March 30, B 31, W 22 3/4. She would not stand still, said it was the heat. Room was cold. April 11th, B 33 1/4, W 22 1/2. Mr. E.V. came in, would not turn, held the glass for minute."
Mr. Sturges put down his pen. "Miss Poole, that entry, why did you write down that a gentleman came into the room?"
"Because I put down anything that interrupts a fitting, sir. If a fitting is stopped and started, I say why, or else the measures do not agree and I look like a fool the next time." Hannah turned the page. "There are about eleven hundred of those notes in that book over seven years. 'Mother came in.' 'Dog got the hem.' 'Called away to the door.' It is not a special thing, sir. It is the only way to keep measures that mean anything."
"Go on," said the Duke of Marchford.
"April 29th, B 30 1/2, W 22 1/4. Will not look at the glass at all now. Kept her chin up. May 9th, B 30 1/4, W 22. Mr. E.V. stood behind. Did not speak about one minute. She did not move. After, said, 'Is it not looking well?' Voice small. May 22, B 30, W 21 3/4. Taken 1/2 in at her request. I said I would leave it. She said take it in. May 28th, B 29 3/4. Mother spoke of Mr. E.V. Hand to collarbone again. That is the sixth time."
Mr. Sturges said, "The sixth time," in a completely different voice, and wrote it down.
"June 2nd, B 29 and 1/2, W 21 1/2. Let waist out 1/2 in. not asked. She will not eat."
Hannah closed the book. Nobody in that room said anything for about eleven seconds.
"31 and 1/2 to 29 and 1/2," said Mr. Sturges at last. "In twelve weeks. Two inches. And you did not tell anybody."
"I told Mrs. Gill in the May, and she told me what she had been told at my age," said Hannah. "And she was not wrong, sir. And she has spent this week paying for the fact that she was not wrong. And I would be obliged if you would not put that down as a fault in her."
Mr. Sturges of Lincoln's Inn looked at the book for a long moment. "Mrs. Gill," he said, "you have thirty-one years of these."
"I have. In one hand, in four hands. Mine and three girls before Hannah, and every one of them dated and in order, and never out of that press." Mrs. Gill folded her arms. "You are going to ask me whether anybody could say we got them up afterwards, sir. And the answer is that they may say what they please. And there are nine thousand ladies' measures in that room, and about four hundred of them are still living. And every one of them could be asked."
"That," said Mr. Sturges, "is the most formidable thing I have heard this year."
***
Edmund Vane learned that the book existed on the 24th of June, and Hannah never found out how. And Mr. Sturges said afterwards that in his experience, these things simply got out, and that a solicitor's clerk was as likely as anybody. He did not come to Duke Street. He was cleverer than that.
What he did was call on Mrs. Gill's landlord. The workroom at Duke Street was on a lease of eleven years with four to run, and the landlord was a Mr. Poulter of Bedford Row. On the 28th of June, Mrs. Gill had a letter from Poulter's man of business regretting to inform her that the premises were required, and that the lease contained a clause permitting determination on six months' notice in the event of the tenant's business being carried on in a manner injurious to the reputation of the property.
"That clause is in every lease in London," said Mr. Sturges, "and it has never once in my professional life been used against a dressmaker."