The hag now tracks Jasper home to Cloisterham. Here she meets Datchery,
whom she asks how she can see Jasper? If Datchery is Drood, he now
learns, _what he did not know before_, _that there is some connection
between Jasper and the hag_. He walks with her to the place where Edwin
met the hag, on Christmas Eve, and gave her money; and he jingles his own
money as he walks. The place, or the sound of the money, makes the woman
tell Datchery about Edwin’s gift of three shillings and sixpence for
opium. Datchery, “with a sudden change of countenance, gives her a
sudden look.” It does not follow that he is _not_ Drood, for, though the
hag’s love of opium was known to Drood, Datchery is not to reveal his
recognition of the woman. He does what any stranger would do; he “gives
a sudden look,” as if surprised by the mention of opium.
Mr. Walters says, “Drood would not have changed countenance on hearing a
fact he had known six months previously.” But if Drood was playing at
being somebody else, he would, of course, give a kind of start and stare,
on hearing of the opium. When he also hears from the hag that her former
benefactor’s name was Edwin, he asks her how she knew that—“a fatuously
unnecessary question,” says Mr. Walters. A needless question for
Datchery’s information, if he be Drood, but as useful a question as
another if Drood be Datchery, and wishes to maintain the conversation.