Jasper has had ample time to take models in wax of all Durdles’s keys.
But he could have done that in a few minutes, while Durdles slept, if he
had wax with him, without leaving the crypt. He has also had time to
convey several wheelbarrowfuls of quicklime from Durdles’s yard to Mrs.
Sapsea’s sepulchre, of which monument he probably took the key from
Durdles, and tried its identity by clinking. But even in a Cathedral
town, even after midnight, several successive expeditions of a lay
precentor with a wheelbarrow full of quicklime would have been apt to
attract the comment of some belated physician, some cleric coming from a
sick bed, or some local roysterers. Therefore it is that Dickens insists
on the “utterly deserted” character of the area, and shows us that Jasper
has made sure of that essential fact by observations from the tower top.
Still, his was a perilous expedition, with his wheelbarrow! We should
probably learn later, that Jasper was detected by the wakeful Deputy, who
loathed him. Moreover, next morning Durdles was apt to notice that some
of his quicklime had been removed. As far as is shown, Durdles noticed
nothing of that kind, though he does observe peculiarities in Jasper’s
behaviour.
The next point in the tale is that Edwin and Rosa meet, and have sense
enough to break off their engagement. But Edwin, represented as really
good-hearted, now begins to repent his past behaviour, and, though he has
a kind of fancy for Miss Landless, he pretty clearly falls deeper in love
with his late _fiancée_, and weeps his loss in private: so we are told.