Two new characters are now introduced, Neville and Helena Landless, {11}
twins, orphans, of Cingalese extraction, probably Eurasian; very dark,
the girl “almost of the gipsy type;” both are “fierce of look.” The
young man is to read with Canon Crisparkle and live with him; the girl
goes to the same school as Rosa. The education of both has been utterly
neglected; instruction has been denied to them. Neville explains the
cause of their fierceness to Crisparkle. In Ceylon they were bullied by
a cruel stepfather and several times ran away: the girl was the leader,
always “_dressed as a boy_, _and showing the daring of a man_.” Edwin
Drood’s air of supercilious ownership of Rosa Bud (indicated as a fault
of youth and circumstance, not of heart and character), irritates Neville
Landless, who falls in love with Rosa at first sight. As Rosa sings, at
Crisparkle’s, while Jasper plays the piano, Jasper’s fixed stare produces
an hysterical fit in the girl, who is soothed by Helena Landless. Helena
shows her aversion to Jasper, who, as even Edwin now sees, frightens
Rosa. “You would be afraid of him, under similar circumstances, wouldn’t
you, Miss Landless?” asks Edwin. “Not under any circumstances,” answers
Helena, and Jasper “thanks Miss Landless for this vindication of his
character.”
The girls go back to their school, where Rosa explains to Helena her
horror of Jasper’s silent love-making: “I feel that I am never safe from
him . . . a glaze comes over his eyes and he seems to wander away into a
frightful sort of dream in which he threatens most,” as already quoted.
Helena thus, and she alone, except Rosa, understands Jasper thoroughly.
She becomes Rosa’s protectress. “_Let whomsoever it most concerned look
well to it_.”
Thus Jasper has a new observer and enemy, in addition to the omnipresent
street boy, Deputy, and the detective old hag of the opium den.
Leaving the Canon’s house, Neville and Edwin quarrel violently over Rosa,
in the open air; they are followed by Jasper, and taken to his house to
be reconciled over glasses of mulled wine. Jasper drugs the wine, and
thus provokes a violent scene; next day he tells Crisparkle that Neville
is “murderous.” “There is something of the tiger in his dark blood.” He
spreads the story of the _fracas_ in the town.