Forster found, and published, a very illegible sketch of a chapter of the
tale: “How Mr. Sapsea ceased to be a Member of the Eight Club, Told by
Himself.” This was “a cramped, interlined, and blotted” draft, on paper
of only half the size commonly used by Dickens. Mr. Sapsea tells how his
Club mocked him about a stranger, who had mistaken him for the Dean. The
jackass, Sapsea, left the Club, and met the stranger, _a young man_, who
fooled him to the top of his bent, saying, “If I was to deny that I came
to this town to see and hear you, Sir, what would it avail me?”
Apparently this paper was a rough draft of an idea for introducing a
detective, as a _young_ man, who mocks Sapsea just as Datchery does in
the novel. But to make the spy a _young_ man, whether the spy was Drood
or Helena Landless, was too difficult; and therefore Dickens makes
Datchery “an elderly buffer” in a white wig. If I am right, it was
easier for Helena, a girl, to pose as a young man, than for Drood to
reappear as a young man, not himself. Helena _may_ be Datchery, and yet
Drood may be alive and biding his time; but I have disproved my old
objection that there was no reason why Drood, if alive, should go spying
about in disguise. There were good Dickensian reasons.