Chapter X - Smoothing the Way

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

by Charles Dickens

It has been often enough remarked that women have a curious power
of divining the characters of men, which would seem to be innate
and instinctive; seeing that it is arrived at through no patient
process of reasoning, that it can give no satisfactory or sufficient
account of itself, and that it pronounces in the most confident
manner even against accumulated observation on the part of the other
sex. But it has not been quite so often remarked that this power
(fallible, like every other human attribute) is for the most part
absolutely incapable of self-revision; and that when it has
delivered an adverse opinion which by all human lights is
subsequently proved to have failed, it is undistinguishable from
prejudice, in respect of its determination not to be corrected.
Nay, the very possibility of contradiction or disproof, however
remote, communicates to this feminine judgment from the first, in
nine cases out of ten, the weakness attendant on the testimony of an
interested witness; so personally and strongly does the fair diviner
connect herself with her divination.

'Now, don't you think, Ma dear,' said the Minor Canon to his
mother one day as she sat at her knitting in his little book-room,
'that you are rather hard on Mr. Neville?'

'No, I do not, Sept,' returned the old lady.

'Let us discuss it, Ma.'

'I have no objection to discuss it, Sept. I trust, my dear, I
am always open to discussion.' There was a vibration in the old
lady's cap, as though she internally added: 'and I should like to
see the discussion that would change my mind!'

'Very good, Ma,' said her conciliatory son. 'There is nothing
like being open to discussion.'

'I hope not, my dear,' returned the old lady, evidently shut to
it.

'Well! Mr. Neville, on that unfortunate occasion, commits
himself under provocation.'

'And under mulled wine,' added the old lady.

'I must admit the wine. Though I believe the two young men were
much alike in that regard.'

'I don't,' said the old lady.

'Why not, Ma?'

'Because I don't,' said the old lady. 'Still, I am quite open
to discussion.'

'But, my dear Ma, I cannot see how we are to discuss, if you
take that line.'

'Blame Mr. Neville for it, Sept, and not me,' said the old lady,
with stately severity.

'My dear Ma! why Mr. Neville?'

'Because,' said Mrs. Crisparkle, retiring on first principles,
'he came home intoxicated, and did great discredit to this house,
and showed great disrespect to this family.'

'That is not to be denied, Ma. He was then, and he is now, very
sorry for it.'

'But for Mr. Jasper's well-bred consideration in coming up to
me, next day, after service, in the Nave itself, with his gown still
on, and expressing his hope that I had not been greatly alarmed or
had my rest violently broken, I believe I might never have heard of
that disgraceful transaction,' said the old lady.

'To be candid, Ma, I think I should have kept it from you if I
could: though I had not decidedly made up my mind. I was following
Jasper out, to confer with him on the subject, and to consider the
expediency of his and my jointly hushing the thing up on all
accounts, when I found him speaking to you. Then it was too
late.'

'Too late, indeed, Sept. He was still as pale as gentlemanly
ashes at what had taken place in his rooms overnight.'

'If I had kept it from you, Ma, you may be sure it would have
been for your peace and quiet, and for the good of the young men,
and in my best discharge of my duty according to my lights.'

The old lady immediately walked across the room and kissed him:
saying, 'Of course, my dear Sept, I am sure of that.'

'However, it became the town-talk,' said Mr. Crisparkle, rubbing
his ear, as his mother resumed her seat, and her knitting, 'and
passed out of my power.'

'And I said then, Sept,' returned the old lady, 'that I thought
ill of Mr. Neville. And I say now, that I think ill of Mr. Neville.
And I said then, and I say now, that I hope Mr. Neville may come to
good, but I don't believe he will.' Here the cap vibrated again
considerably.

'I am sorry to hear you say so, Ma - '

'I am sorry to say so, my dear,' interposed the old lady,
knitting on firmly, 'but I can't help it.'

' - For,' pursued the Minor Canon, 'it is undeniable that Mr.
Neville is exceedingly industrious and attentive, and that he
improves apace, and that he has - I hope I may say - an attachment
to me.'

'There is no merit in the last article, my dear,' said the old
lady, quickly; 'and if he says there is, I think the worse of him
for the boast.'

'But, my dear Ma, he never said there was.'

'Perhaps not,' returned the old lady; 'still, I don't see that
it greatly signifies.'

There was no impatience in the pleasant look with which Mr.
Crisparkle contemplated the pretty old piece of china as it knitted;
but there was, certainly, a humorous sense of its not being a piece
of china to argue with very closely.

'Besides, Sept, ask yourself what he would be without his
sister. You know what an influence she has over him; you know what
a capacity she has; you know that whatever he reads with you, he
reads with her. Give her her fair share of your praise, and how
much do you leave for him?'

At these words Mr. Crisparkle fell into a little reverie, in
which he thought of several things. He thought of the times he had
seen the brother and sister together in deep converse over one of
his own old college books; now, in the rimy mornings, when he made
those sharpening pilgrimages to Cloisterham Weir; now, in the sombre
evenings, when he faced the wind at sunset, having climbed his
favourite outlook, a beetling fragment of monastery ruin; and the
two studious figures passed below him along the margin of the river,
in which the town fires and lights already shone, making the
landscape bleaker. He thought how the consciousness had stolen upon
him that in teaching one, he was teaching two; and how he had almost
insensibly adapted his explanations to both minds - that with which
his own was daily in contact, and that which he only approached
through it. He thought of the gossip that had reached him from the
Nuns' House, to the effect that Helena, whom he had mistrusted as so
proud and fierce, submitted herself to the fairy- bride (as he called
her), and learnt from her what she knew. He thought of the
picturesque alliance between those two, externally so very
different. He thought - perhaps most of all - could it be that
these things were yet but so many weeks old, and had become an
integral part of his life?

As, whenever the Reverend Septimus fell a-musing, his good
mother took it to be an infallible sign that he 'wanted support,'
the blooming old lady made all haste to the dining-room closet, to
produce from it the support embodied in a glass of Constantia and a
home-made biscuit. It was a most wonderful closet, worthy of
Cloisterham and of Minor Canon Corner. Above it, a portrait of
Handel in a flowing wig beamed down at the spectator, with a knowing
air of being up to the contents of the closet, and a musical air of
intending to combine all its harmonies in one delicious fugue. No
common closet with a vulgar door on hinges, openable all at once,
and leaving nothing to be disclosed by degrees, this rare closet had
a lock in mid-air, where two perpendicular slides met; the one
falling down, and the other pushing up. The upper slide, on being
pulled down (leaving the lower a double mystery), revealed deep
shelves of pickle-jars, jam- pots, tin canisters, spice-boxes, and
agreeably outlandish vessels of blue and white, the luscious
lodgings of preserved tamarinds and ginger. Every benevolent
inhabitant of this retreat had his name inscribed upon his stomach.
The pickles, in a uniform of rich brown double-breasted buttoned
coat, and yellow or sombre drab continuations, announced their
portly forms, in printed capitals, as Walnut, Gherkin, Onion,
Cabbage, Cauliflower, Mixed, and other members of that noble family.
The jams, as being of a less masculine temperament, and as wearing
curlpapers, announced themselves in feminine caligraphy, like a soft
whisper, to be Raspberry, Gooseberry, Apricot, Plum, Damson, Apple,
and Peach. The scene closing on these charmers, and the lower slide
ascending, oranges were revealed, attended by a mighty japanned
sugar-box, to temper their acerbity if unripe. Home-made biscuits
waited at the Court of these Powers, accompanied by a goodly
fragment of plum- cake, and various slender ladies' fingers, to be
dipped into sweet wine and kissed. Lowest of all, a compact
leaden-vault enshrined the sweet wine and a stock of cordials:
whence issued whispers of Seville Orange, Lemon, Almond, and
Caraway-seed. There was a crowning air upon this closet of closets,
of having been for ages hummed through by the Cathedral bell and
organ, until those venerable bees had made sublimated honey of
everything in store; and it was always observed that every dipper
among the shelves (deep, as has been noticed, and swallowing up
head, shoulders, and elbows) came forth again mellow-faced, and
seeming to have undergone a saccharine transfiguration.

The Reverend Septimus yielded himself up quite as willing a
victim to a nauseous medicinal herb-closet, also presided over by
the china shepherdess, as to this glorious cupboard. To what
amazing infusions of gentian, peppermint, gilliflower, sage,
parsley, thyme, rue, rosemary, and dandelion, did his courageous
stomach submit itself! In what wonderful wrappers, enclosing layers
of dried leaves, would he swathe his rosy and contented face, if his
mother suspected him of a toothache! What botanical blotches would
he cheerfully stick upon his cheek, or forehead, if the dear old
lady convicted him of an imperceptible pimple there! Into this
herbaceous penitentiary, situated on an upper staircase-landing: a
low and narrow whitewashed cell, where bunches of dried leaves hung
from rusty hooks in the ceiling, and were spread out upon shelves,
in company with portentous bottles: would the Reverend Septimus
submissively be led, like the highly popular lamb who has so long
and unresistingly been led to the slaughter, and there would he,
unlike that lamb, bore nobody but himself. Not even doing that
much, so that the old lady were busy and pleased, he would quietly
swallow what was given him, merely taking a corrective dip of hands
and face into the great bowl of dried rose-leaves, and into the
other great bowl of dried lavender, and then would go out, as
confident in the sweetening powers of Cloisterham Weir and a
wholesome mind, as Lady Macbeth was hopeless of those of all the
seas that roll.

In the present instance the good Minor Canon took his glass of
Constantia with an excellent grace, and, so supported to his
mother's satisfaction, applied himself to the remaining duties of
the day. In their orderly and punctual progress they brought round
Vesper Service and twilight. The Cathedral being very cold, he set
off for a brisk trot after service; the trot to end in a charge at
his favourite fragment of ruin, which was to be carried by storm,
without a pause for breath.

He carried it in a masterly manner, and, not breathed even then,
stood looking down upon the river. The river at Cloisterham is
sufficiently near the sea to throw up oftentimes a quantity of
seaweed. An unusual quantity had come in with the last tide, and
this, and the confusion of the water, and the restless dipping and
flapping of the noisy gulls, and an angry light out seaward beyond
the brown-sailed barges that were turning black, foreshadowed a
stormy night. In his mind he was contrasting the wild and noisy sea
with the quiet harbour of Minor Canon Corner, when Helena and
Neville Landless passed below him. He had had the two together in
his thoughts all day, and at once climbed down to speak to them
together. The footing was rough in an uncertain light for any tread
save that of a good climber; but the Minor Canon was as good a
climber as most men, and stood beside them before many good climbers
would have been half-way down.

'A wild evening, Miss Landless! Do you not find your usual walk
with your brother too exposed and cold for the time of year? Or at
all events, when the sun is down, and the weather is driving in from
the sea?'

Helena thought not. It was their favourite walk. It was very
retired.

'It is very retired,' assented Mr. Crisparkle, laying hold of
his opportunity straightway, and walking on with them. 'It is a
place of all others where one can speak without interruption, as I
wish to do. Mr. Neville, I believe you tell your sister everything
that passes between us?'

'Everything, sir.'

'Consequently,' said Mr. Crisparkle, 'your sister is aware that
I have repeatedly urged you to make some kind of apology for that
unfortunate occurrence which befell on the night of your arrival
here.' In saying it he looked to her, and not to him; therefore it
was she, and not he, who replied:

'Yes.'

'I call it unfortunate, Miss Helena,' resumed Mr. Crisparkle,
'forasmuch as it certainly has engendered a prejudice against
Neville. There is a notion about, that he is a dangerously
passionate fellow, of an uncontrollable and furious temper: he is
really avoided as such.'

'I have no doubt he is, poor fellow,' said Helena, with a look
of proud compassion at her brother, expressing a deep sense of his
being ungenerously treated. 'I should be quite sure of it, from
your saying so; but what you tell me is confirmed by suppressed
hints and references that I meet with every day.'

'Now,' Mr. Crisparkle again resumed, in a tone of mild though
firm persuasion, 'is not this to be regretted, and ought it not to
be amended? These are early days of Neville's in Cloisterham, and I
have no fear of his outliving such a prejudice, and proving himself
to have been misunderstood. But how much wiser to take action at
once, than to trust to uncertain time! Besides, apart from its
being politic, it is right. For there can be no question that
Neville was wrong.'

'He was provoked,' Helena submitted.

'He was the assailant,' Mr. Crisparkle submitted.

They walked on in silence, until Helena raised her eyes to the
Minor Canon's face, and said, almost reproachfully: 'O Mr.
Crisparkle, would you have Neville throw himself at young Drood's
feet, or at Mr. Jasper's, who maligns him every day? In your heart
you cannot mean it. From your heart you could not do it, if his
case were yours.'

'I have represented to Mr. Crisparkle, Helena,' said Neville,
with a glance of deference towards his tutor, 'that if I could do it
from my heart, I would. But I cannot, and I revolt from the
pretence. You forget however, that to put the case to Mr.
Crisparkle as his own, is to suppose to have done what I did.'

'I ask his pardon,' said Helena.

'You see,' remarked Mr. Crisparkle, again laying hold of his
opportunity, though with a moderate and delicate touch, 'you both
instinctively acknowledge that Neville did wrong. Then why stop
short, and not otherwise acknowledge it?'

'Is there no difference,' asked Helena, with a little faltering
in her manner; 'between submission to a generous spirit, and
submission to a base or trivial one?'

Before the worthy Minor Canon was quite ready with his argument
in reference to this nice distinction, Neville struck in:

'Help me to clear myself with Mr. Crisparkle, Helena. Help me
to convince him that I cannot be the first to make concessions
without mockery and falsehood. My nature must be changed before I
can do so, and it is not changed. I am sensible of inexpressible
affront, and deliberate aggravation of inexpressible affront, and I
am angry. The plain truth is, I am still as angry when I recall
that night as I was that night.'

'Neville,' hinted the Minor Canon, with a steady countenance,
'you have repeated that former action of your hands, which I so much
dislike.'

'I am sorry for it, sir, but it was involuntary. I confessed
that I was still as angry.'

'And I confess,' said Mr. Crisparkle, 'that I hoped for better
things.'

'I am sorry to disappoint you, sir, but it would be far worse to
deceive you, and I should deceive you grossly if I pretended that
you had softened me in this respect. The time may come when your
powerful influence will do even that with the difficult pupil whose
antecedents you know; but it has not come yet. Is this so, and in
spite of my struggles against myself, Helena?'

She, whose dark eyes were watching the effect of what he said on
Mr. Crisparkle's face, replied - to Mr. Crisparkle, not to him:
'It is so.' After a short pause, she answered the slightest look of
inquiry conceivable, in her brother's eyes, with as slight an
affirmative bend of her own head; and he went on:

'I have never yet had the courage to say to you, sir, what in
full openness I ought to have said when you first talked with me on
this subject. It is not easy to say, and I have been withheld by a
fear of its seeming ridiculous, which is very strong upon me down to
this last moment, and might, but for my sister, prevent my being
quite open with you even now. - I admire Miss Bud, sir, so very
much, that I cannot bear her being treated with conceit or
indifference; and even if I did not feel that I had an injury
against young Drood on my own account, I should feel that I had an
injury against him on hers.'

Mr. Crisparkle, in utter amazement, looked at Helena for
corroboration, and met in her expressive face full corroboration,
and a plea for advice.

'The young lady of whom you speak is, as you know, Mr. Neville,
shortly to be married,' said Mr. Crisparkle, gravely; 'therefore
your admiration, if it be of that special nature which you seem to
indicate, is outrageously misplaced. Moreover, it is monstrous that
you should take upon yourself to be the young lady's champion
against her chosen husband. Besides, you have seen them only once.
The young lady has become your sister's friend; and I wonder that
your sister, even on her behalf, has not checked you in this
irrational and culpable fancy.'

'She has tried, sir, but uselessly. Husband or no husband, that
fellow is incapable of the feeling with which I am inspired towards
the beautiful young creature whom he treats like a doll. I say he
is as incapable of it, as he is unworthy of her. I say she is
sacrificed in being bestowed upon him. I say that I love her, and
despise and hate him!' This with a face so flushed, and a gesture
so violent, that his sister crossed to his side, and caught his arm,
remonstrating, 'Neville, Neville!'

Thus recalled to himself, he quickly became sensible of having
lost the guard he had set upon his passionate tendency, and covered
his face with his hand, as one repentant and wretched.

Mr. Crisparkle, watching him attentively, and at the same time
meditating how to proceed, walked on for some paces in silence.
Then he spoke:

'Mr. Neville, Mr. Neville, I am sorely grieved to see in you
more traces of a character as sullen, angry, and wild, as the night
now closing in. They are of too serious an aspect to leave me the
resource of treating the infatuation you have disclosed, as
undeserving serious consideration. I give it very serious
consideration, and I speak to you accordingly. This feud between
you and young Drood must not go on. I cannot permit it to go on any
longer, knowing what I now know from you, and you living under my
roof. Whatever prejudiced and unauthorised constructions your blind
and envious wrath may put upon his character, it is a frank,
good-natured character. I know I can trust to it for that. Now,
pray observe what I am about to say. On reflection, and on your
sister's representation, I am willing to admit that, in making peace
with young Drood, you have a right to be met half-way. I will
engage that you shall be, and even that young Drood shall make the
first advance. This condition fulfilled, you will pledge me the
honour of a Christian gentleman that the quarrel is for ever at an
end on your side. What may be in your heart when you give him your
hand, can only be known to the Searcher of all hearts; but it will
never go well with you, if there be any treachery there. So far, as
to that; next as to what I must again speak of as your infatuation.
I understand it to have been confided to me, and to be known to no
other person save your sister and yourself. Do I understand
aright?'

Helena answered in a low voice: 'It is only known to us three
who are here together.'

'It is not at all known to the young lady, your friend?'

'On my soul, no!'

'I require you, then, to give me your similar and solemn pledge,
Mr. Neville, that it shall remain the secret it is, and that you
will take no other action whatsoever upon it than endeavouring (and
that most earnestly) to erase it from your mind. I will not tell
you that it will soon pass; I will not tell you that it is the fancy
of the moment; I will not tell you that such caprices have their
rise and fall among the young and ardent every hour; I will leave
you undisturbed in the belief that it has few parallels or none,
that it will abide with you a long time, and that it will be very
difficult to conquer. So much the more weight shall I attach to the
pledge I require from you, when it is unreservedly given.'

The young man twice or thrice essayed to speak, but failed.

'Let me leave you with your sister, whom it is time you took
home,' said Mr. Crisparkle. 'You will find me alone in my room
by-and- by.'

'Pray do not leave us yet,' Helena implored him. 'Another
minute.'

'I should not,' said Neville, pressing his hand upon his face,
'have needed so much as another minute, if you had been less patient
with me, Mr. Crisparkle, less considerate of me, and less
unpretendingly good and true. O, if in my childhood I had known
such a guide!'

'Follow your guide now, Neville,' murmured Helena, 'and follow
him to Heaven!'

There was that in her tone which broke the good Minor Canon's
voice, or it would have repudiated her exaltation of him. As it
was, he laid a finger on his lips, and looked towards her brother.

'To say that I give both pledges, Mr. Crisparkle, out of my
innermost heart, and to say that there is no treachery in it, is to
say nothing!' Thus Neville, greatly moved. 'I beg your forgiveness
for my miserable lapse into a burst of passion.'

'Not mine, Neville, not mine. You know with whom forgiveness
lies, as the highest attribute conceivable. Miss Helena, you and
your brother are twin children. You came into this world with the
same dispositions, and you passed your younger days together
surrounded by the same adverse circumstances. What you have
overcome in yourself, can you not overcome in him? You see the rock
that lies in his course. Who but you can keep him clear of it?'

'Who but you, sir?' replied Helena. 'What is my influence, or
my weak wisdom, compared with yours!'

'You have the wisdom of Love,' returned the Minor Canon, 'and it
was the highest wisdom ever known upon this earth, remember. As to
mine - but the less said of that commonplace commodity the better.
Good night!'

She took the hand he offered her, and gratefully and almost
reverently raised it to her lips.

'Tut!' said the Minor Canon softly, 'I am much overpaid!' and
turned away.

Retracing his steps towards the Cathedral Close, he tried, as he
went along in the dark, to think out the best means of bringing to
pass what he had promised to effect, and what must somehow be done.
'I shall probably be asked to marry them,' he reflected, 'and I
would they were married and gone! But this presses first.'

He debated principally whether he should write to young Drood,
or whether he should speak to Jasper. The consciousness of being
popular with the whole Cathedral establishment inclined him to the
latter course, and the well-timed sight of the lighted gatehouse
decided him to take it. 'I will strike while the iron is hot,' he
said, 'and see him now.'

Jasper was lying asleep on a couch before the fire, when, having
ascended the postern-stair, and received no answer to his knock at
the door, Mr. Crisparkle gently turned the handle and looked in.
Long afterwards he had cause to remember how Jasper sprang from the
couch in a delirious state between sleeping and waking, and crying
out: 'What is the matter? Who did it?'

'It is only I, Jasper. I am sorry to have disturbed you.'

The glare of his eyes settled down into a look of recognition,
and he moved a chair or two, to make a way to the fireside.

'I was dreaming at a great rate, and am glad to be disturbed
from an indigestive after-dinner sleep. Not to mention that you are
always welcome.'

'Thank you. I am not confident,' returned Mr. Crisparkle, as he
sat himself down in the easy-chair placed for him, 'that my subject
will at first sight be quite as welcome as myself; but I am a
minister of peace, and I pursue my subject in the interests of
peace. In a word, Jasper, I want to establish peace between these
two young fellows.'

A very perplexed expression took hold of Mr. Jasper's face; a
very perplexing expression too, for Mr. Crisparkle could make
nothing of it.

'How?' was Jasper's inquiry, in a low and slow voice, after a
silence.

'For the "How" I come to you. I want to ask you to do me the
great favour and service of interposing with your nephew (I have
already interposed with Mr. Neville), and getting him to write you a
short note, in his lively way, saying that he is willing to shake
hands. I know what a good-natured fellow he is, and what influence
you have with him. And without in the least defending Mr. Neville,
we must all admit that he was bitterly stung.'

Jasper turned that perplexed face towards the fire. Mr.
Crisparkle continuing to observe it, found it even more perplexing
than before, inasmuch as it seemed to denote (which could hardly be)
some close internal calculation.

'I know that you are not prepossessed in Mr. Neville's favour,'
the Minor Canon was going on, when Jasper stopped him:

'You have cause to say so. I am not, indeed.'

'Undoubtedly; and I admit his lamentable violence of temper,
though I hope he and I will get the better of it between us. But I
have exacted a very solemn promise from him as to his future
demeanour towards your nephew, if you do kindly interpose; and I am
sure he will keep it.'

'You are always responsible and trustworthy, Mr. Crisparkle. Do
you really feel sure that you can answer for him so confidently?'

'I do.'

The perplexed and perplexing look vanished.

'Then you relieve my mind of a great dread, and a heavy weight,'
said Jasper; 'I will do it.'

Mr. Crisparkle, delighted by the swiftness and completeness of
his success, acknowledged it in the handsomest terms.

'I will do it,' repeated Jasper, 'for the comfort of having your
guarantee against my vague and unfounded fears. You will laugh -
but do you keep a Diary?'

'A line for a day; not more.'

'A line for a day would be quite as much as my uneventful life
would need, Heaven knows,' said Jasper, taking a book from a desk,
'but that my Diary is, in fact, a Diary of Ned's life too. You will
laugh at this entry; you will guess when it was made:

'"Past midnight. - After what I have just now seen, I have a
morbid dread upon me of some horrible consequences resulting to my
dear boy, that I cannot reason with or in any way contend against.
All my efforts are vain. The demoniacal passion of this Neville
Landless, his strength in his fury, and his savage rage for the
destruction of its object, appal me. So profound is the impression,
that twice since I have gone into my dear boy's room, to assure
myself of his sleeping safely, and not lying dead in his blood."

'Here is another entry next morning:

'"Ned up and away. Light-hearted and unsuspicious as ever. He
laughed when I cautioned him, and said he was as good a man as
Neville Landless any day. I told him that might be, but he was not
as bad a man. He continued to make light of it, but I travelled
with him as far as I could, and left him most unwillingly. I am
unable to shake off these dark intangible presentiments of evil - if
feelings founded upon staring facts are to be so called."

'Again and again,' said Jasper, in conclusion, twirling the
leaves of the book before putting it by, 'I have relapsed into these
moods, as other entries show. But I have now your assurance at my
back, and shall put it in my book, and make it an antidote to my
black humours.'

'Such an antidote, I hope,' returned Mr. Crisparkle, 'as will
induce you before long to consign the black humours to the flames.
I ought to be the last to find any fault with you this evening, when
you have met my wishes so freely; but I must say, Jasper, that your
devotion to your nephew has made you exaggerative here.'

'You are my witness,' said Jasper, shrugging his shoulders,
'what my state of mind honestly was, that night, before I sat down
to write, and in what words I expressed it. You remember objecting
to a word I used, as being too strong? It was a stronger word than
any in my Diary.'

'Well, well. Try the antidote,' rejoined Mr. Crisparkle; 'and
may it give you a brighter and better view of the case! We will
discuss it no more now. I have to thank you for myself, thank you
sincerely.'

'You shall find,' said Jasper, as they shook hands, 'that I will
not do the thing you wish me to do, by halves. I will take care
that Ned, giving way at all, shall give way thoroughly.'

On the third day after this conversation, he called on Mr.
Crisparkle with the following letter:

'MY DEAR JACK,

'I am touched by your account of your interview with Mr.
Crisparkle, whom I much respect and esteem. At once I openly say
that I forgot myself on that occasion quite as much as Mr. Landless
did, and that I wish that bygone to be a bygone, and all to be right
again.

'Look here, dear old boy. Ask Mr. Landless to dinner on
Christmas Eve (the better the day the better the deed), and let
there be only we three, and let us shake hands all round there and
then, and say no more about it.

'My dear Jack,
'Ever your most affectionate,
'EDWIN
DROOD.

'P.S. Love to Miss Pussy at the next music-lesson.'

'You expect Mr. Neville, then?' said Mr. Crisparkle.

'I count upon his coming,' said Mr. Jasper.