Men go forth and apprehend Neville, who shows fight with his heavy stick.
We learn that he and Drood left Jasper’s house at midnight, went for ten
minutes to look at the river under the wind, and parted at Crisparkle’s
door. Neville now remains under suspicion: Jasper directs the search in
the river, on December 25, 26, and 27. On the evening of December 27,
Grewgious visits Jasper. Now, Grewgious, as we know, was to be at
Cloisterham at Christmas. True, he was engaged to dine on Christmas Day
with Bazzard, his clerk; but, thoughtful as he was of the moody Bazzard,
as Edwin was leaving Cloisterham he would excuse himself. He would
naturally take a great part in the search for Edwin, above all as Edwin
had in his possession the ring so dear to the lawyer. Edwin had not
shown it to Rosa when they determined to part. He “kept it in his
breast,” and the ring, we learn, was “_gifted with invincible force to
hold and drag_,” so Dickens warns us.
The ring is obviously to be a _pièce de conviction_. But our point, at
present, is that we do not know how Grewgious, to whom this ring was so
dear, employed himself at Cloisterham—after Edwin’s disappearance—between
December 25 and December 27. On the evening of the 27th, he came to
Jasper, saying, “I have _just left Miss Landless_.” He then slowly and
watchfully told Jasper that Edwin’s engagement was broken off, while the
precentor gasped, perspired, tore his hair, shrieked, and finally
subsided into a heap of muddy clothes on the floor. Meanwhile, Mr.
Grewgious, calmly observing these phenomena, warmed his hands at the fire
for some time before he called in Jasper’s landlady.
Grewgious now knows by Jasper’s behaviour that he believes himself to
have committed a superfluous crime, by murdering Edwin, who no longer
stood between him and Rosa, as their engagement was already at an end.
Whether a Jasper, in real life, would excite himself so much, is another
question. We do not know, as Mr. Proctor insists, what Mr. Grewgious had
been doing at Cloisterham between Christmas Day and December 27, the date
of his experiment on Jasper’s nerves. Mr. Proctor supposes him to have
met the living Edwin, and obtained information from him, after his escape
from a murderous attack by Jasper. Mr. Proctor insists that this is the
only explanation of Grewgious’s conduct, any other “is absolutely
impossible.” In that case the experiment of Grewgious was not made to
gain information from Jasper’s demeanour, but was the beginning of his
punishment, and was intended by Grewgious to be so.
But Dickens has been careful to suggest, with suspicious breadth of
candour, another explanation of the source of Grewgious’s knowledge. If
Edwin has really escaped, and met Grewgious, Dickens does not want us to
be sure of that, as Mr. Proctor was sure. Dickens deliberately puts his
readers on another trail, though neither Mr. Walters nor Mr. Proctor
struck the scent. As we have noted, Grewgious at once says to Jasper,
“_I have just come from Miss Landless_.” This tells Jasper nothing, but
it tells a great deal to the watchful reader, who remembers that Miss
Landless, and she only, is aware that Jasper loves, bullies, and insults
Rosa, and that Rosa’s life is embittered by Jasper’s silent wooing, and
his unspoken threats. Helena may also know that “Ned is a threatened
name,” as we have seen, and that the menace comes from Jasper. As Jasper
is now known to be Edwin’s rival in love, and as Edwin has vanished, the
murderer, Mr. Grewgious reckons, is Jasper; and his experiment, with
Jasper’s consequent shriek and fit, confirms the hypothesis. Thus
Grewgious had information enough, from Miss Landless, to suggest his
experiment—Dickens intentionally made that clear (though not clear enough
for Mr. Proctor and Mr. Cuming Walters)—while his experiment gives him a
moral certainty of Jasper’s crime, but yields no legal evidence.
But does Grewgious know no more than what Helena, and the fit and shriek
of Jasper, have told him? Is his knowledge limited to the evidence that
Jasper has murdered Edwin? Or does Grewgious know more, know that Edwin,
in some way, has escaped from death?
That is Dickens’s secret. But whereas Grewgious, if he believes Jasper
to be an actual murderer, should take him seriously; in point of fact, he
speaks of Jasper in so light a tone, as “our local friend,” that we feel
no certainty that he is not really aware of Edwin’s escape from a
murderous attack by Jasper, and of his continued existence.
Presently Crisparkle, under some mysterious impression, apparently
telepathic (the book is rich in such psychical phenomena), visits the
weir on the river, at night, and next day finds Edwin’s watch and chain
in the timbers; his scarf-pin in the pool below. The watch and chain
must have been placed purposely where they were found, they could not
float thither, and, if Neville had slain Edwin, he would not have stolen
his property, of course, except as a blind, neutralised by the placing of
the watch in a conspicuous spot. However, the increased suspicions drive
Neville away to read law in Staple Inn, where Grewgious also dwells, and
incessantly watches Neville out of his window.
About six months later, Helena Landless is to join Neville, who is
watched at intervals by Jasper, who, again, is watched by Grewgious as
the precentor lurks about Staple Inn.