Grewgious, Rosa’s guardian, now comes down on business; the girl fails to
explain to him the unsatisfactory relations between her and Edwin:
Grewgious is to return to her “at Christmas,” if she sends for him, and
she does send. Grewgious, “an angular man,” all duty and sentiment (he
had loved Rosa’s mother), has an interview with Edwin’s trustee, Jasper,
for whom he has no enthusiasm, but whom he does not in any way suspect.
They part on good terms, to meet at Christmas. Crisparkle, with whom
Helena has fallen suddenly in love, arranges with Jasper that Edwin and
Landless shall meet and be reconciled, as both are willing to be, at a
dinner in Jasper’s rooms, on Christmas Eve. Jasper, when Crisparkle
proposes this, denotes by his manner “some close internal calculation.”
We see that he is reckoning how the dinner suits his plan of campaign,
and “_close_ calculation” may refer, as in Mr. Proctor’s theory, to the
period of the moon: _on Christmas Eve there will be no moonshine at
midnight_. Jasper, having worked out this problem, accepts Crisparkle’s
proposal, and his assurances about Neville, and shows Crisparkle a diary
in which he has entered his fears that Edwin’s life is in danger from
Neville. Edwin (who is not in Cloisterham at this moment) accepts, by
letter, the invitation to meet Neville at Jasper’s on Christmas Eve.
Meanwhile Edwin visits Grewgious in his London chambers; is lectured on
his laggard and supercilious behaviour as a lover, and receives the
engagement ring of the late Mrs. Bud, Rosa’s mother, which is very dear
to Grewgious—in the presence of Bazzard, Grewgious’s clerk, a gloomy
writer of an amateur unacted tragedy. Edwin is to return the ring to
Grewgious, if he and Rosa decide not to marry. The ring is in a case,
and Edwin places it “in his breast.” We must understand, in the
breast-pocket of his coat: no other interpretation will pass muster.
“Her ring—will it come back to me?” reflects the mournful Grewgious.