CHAPTER XVI--DEVOTED
When John Jasper recovered from his fit or swoon, he found himself beingtended by Mr. and Mrs. Tope, whom his visitor had summoned for thepurpose. His visitor, wooden of aspect, sat stiffly in a chair, with hishands upon his knees, watching his recovery.
'There! You've come to nicely now, sir,' said the tearful Mrs. Tope;'you were thoroughly worn out, and no wonder!'
'A man,' said Mr. Grewgious, with his usual air of repeating a lesson,'cannot have his rest broken, and his mind cruelly tormented, and hisbody overtaxed by fatigue, without being thoroughly worn out.'
'I fear I have alarmed you?' Jasper apologised faintly, when he washelped into his easy-chair.
'Not at all, I thank you,' answered Mr. Grewgious.
'You are too considerate.'
'Not at all, I thank you,' answered Mr. Grewgious again.
'You must take some wine, sir,' said Mrs. Tope, 'and the jelly that I hadready for you, and that you wouldn't put your lips to at noon, though Iwarned you what would come of it, you know, and you not breakfasted; andyou must have a wing of the roast fowl that has been put back twentytimes if it's been put back once. It shall all be on table in fiveminutes, and this good gentleman belike will stop and see you take it.'
This good gentleman replied with a snort, which might mean yes, or no, oranything or nothing, and which Mrs. Tope would have found highlymystifying, but that her attention was divided by the service of thetable.
'You will take something with me?' said Jasper, as the cloth was laid.
'I couldn't get a morsel down my throat, I thank you,' answered Mr.Grewgious.
Jasper both ate and drank almost voraciously. Combined with the hurry inhis mode of doing it, was an evident indifference to the taste of what hetook, suggesting that he ate and drank to fortify himself against anyother failure of the spirits, far more than to gratify his palate. Mr.Grewgious in the meantime sat upright, with no expression in his face,and a hard kind of imperturbably polite protest all over him: as thoughhe would have said, in reply to some invitation to discourse; 'I couldn'toriginate the faintest approach to an observation on any subjectwhatever, I thank you.'
'Do you know,' said Jasper, when he had pushed away his plate and glass,and had sat meditating for a few minutes: 'do you know that I find somecrumbs of comfort in the communication with which you have so much amazedme?'
'_Do_ you?' returned Mr. Grewgious, pretty plainly adding the unspokenclause: 'I don't, I thank you!'
'After recovering from the shock of a piece of news of my dear boy, soentirely unexpected, and so destructive of all the castles I had builtfor him; and after having had time to think of it; yes.'
'I shall be glad to pick up your crumbs,' said Mr. Grewgious, dryly.
'Is there not, or is there--if I deceive myself, tell me so, and shortenmy pain--is there not, or is there, hope that, finding himself in thisnew position, and becoming sensitively alive to the awkward burden ofexplanation, in this quarter, and that, and the other, with which itwould load him, he avoided the awkwardness, and took to flight?'
'Such a thing might be,' said Mr. Grewgious, pondering.
'Such a thing has been. I have read of cases in which people, ratherthan face a seven days' wonder, and have to account for themselves to theidle and impertinent, have taken themselves away, and been long unheardof.'
'I believe such things have happened,' said Mr. Grewgious, ponderingstill.
'When I had, and could have, no suspicion,' pursued Jasper, eagerlyfollowing the new track, 'that the dear lost boy had withheld anythingfrom me--most of all, such a leading matter as this--what gleam of lightwas there for me in the whole black sky? When I supposed that hisintended wife was here, and his marriage close at hand, how could Ientertain the possibility of his voluntarily leaving this place, in amanner that would be so unaccountable, capricious, and cruel? But nowthat I know what you have told me, is there no little chink through whichday pierces? Supposing him to have disappeared of his own act, is nothis disappearance more accountable and less cruel? The fact of hishaving just parted from your ward, is in itself a sort of reason for hisgoing away. It does not make his mysterious departure the less cruel tome, it is true; but it relieves it of cruelty to her.'
Mr. Grewgious could not but assent to this.
'And even as to me,' continued Jasper, still pursuing the new track, withardour, and, as he did so, brightening with hope: 'he knew that you werecoming to me; he knew that you were intrusted to tell me what you havetold me; if your doing so has awakened a new train of thought in myperplexed mind, it reasonably follows that, from the same premises, hemight have foreseen the inferences that I should draw. Grant that he didforesee them; and even the cruelty to me--and who am I!--John Jasper,Music Master, vanishes!'--
Once more, Mr. Grewgious could not but assent to this.
'I have had my distrusts, and terrible distrusts they have been,' saidJasper; 'but your disclosure, overpowering as it was at first--showing methat my own dear boy had had a great disappointing reservation from me,who so fondly loved him, kindles hope within me. You do not extinguishit when I state it, but admit it to be a reasonable hope. I begin tobelieve it possible:' here he clasped his hands: 'that he may havedisappeared from among us of his own accord, and that he may yet be aliveand well.'
Mr. Crisparkle came in at the moment. To whom Mr. Jasper repeated:
'I begin to believe it possible that he may have disappeared of his ownaccord, and may yet be alive and well.'
Mr. Crisparkle taking a seat, and inquiring: 'Why so?' Mr. Jasperrepeated the arguments he had just set forth. If they had been lessplausible than they were, the good Minor Canon's mind would have been ina state of preparation to receive them, as exculpatory of his unfortunatepupil. But he, too, did really attach great importance to the lost youngman's having been, so immediately before his disappearance, placed in anew and embarrassing relation towards every one acquainted with hisprojects and affairs; and the fact seemed to him to present the questionin a new light.
'I stated to Mr. Sapsea, when we waited on him,' said Jasper: as hereally had done: 'that there was no quarrel or difference between the twoyoung men at their last meeting. We all know that their first meetingwas unfortunately very far from amicable; but all went smoothly andquietly when they were last together at my house. My dear boy was not inhis usual spirits; he was depressed--I noticed that--and I am boundhenceforth to dwell upon the circumstance the more, now that I know therewas a special reason for his being depressed: a reason, moreover, whichmay possibly have induced him to absent himself.'
'I pray to Heaven it may turn out so!' exclaimed Mr. Crisparkle.
'_I_ pray to Heaven it may turn out so!' repeated Jasper. 'You know--andMr. Grewgious should now know likewise--that I took a great prepossessionagainst Mr. Neville Landless, arising out of his furious conduct on thatfirst occasion. You know that I came to you, extremely apprehensive, onmy dear boy's behalf, of his mad violence. You know that I even enteredin my Diary, and showed the entry to you, that I had dark forebodingsagainst him. Mr. Grewgious ought to be possessed of the whole case. Heshall not, through any suppression of mine, be informed of a part of it,and kept in ignorance of another part of it. I wish him to be goodenough to understand that the communication he has made to me hashopefully influenced my mind, in spite of its having been, before thismysterious occurrence took place, profoundly impressed against youngLandless.'
This fairness troubled the Minor Canon much. He felt that he was not asopen in his own dealing. He charged against himself reproachfully thathe had suppressed, so far, the two points of a second strong outbreak oftemper against Edwin Drood on the part of Neville, and of the passion ofjealousy having, to his own certain knowledge, flamed up in Neville'sbreast against him. He was convinced of Neville's innocence of any partin the ugly disappearance; and yet so many little circumstances combinedso wofully against him, that he dreaded to add two more to theircumulative weight. He was
among the truest of men; but he had beenbalancing in his mind, much to its distress, whether his volunteering totell these two fragments of truth, at this time, would not be tantamountto a piecing together of falsehood in the place of truth.
However, here was a model before him. He hesitated no longer.Addressing Mr. Grewgious, as one placed in authority by the revelation hehad brought to bear on the mystery (and surpassingly Angular Mr.Grewgious became when he found himself in that unexpected position), Mr.Crisparkle bore his testimony to Mr. Jasper's strict sense of justice,and, expressing his absolute confidence in the complete clearance of hispupil from the least taint of suspicion, sooner or later, avowed that hisconfidence in that young gentleman had been formed, in spite of hisconfidential knowledge that his temper was of the hottest and fiercest,and that it was directly incensed against Mr. Jasper's nephew, by thecircumstance of his romantically supposing himself to be enamoured of thesame young lady. The sanguine reaction manifest in Mr. Jasper was proofeven against this unlooked-for declaration. It turned him paler; but herepeated that he would cling to the hope he had derived from Mr.Grewgious; and that if no trace of his dear boy were found, leading tothe dreadful inference that he had been made away with, he would cherishunto the last stretch of possibility the idea, that he might haveabsconded of his own wild will.
Now, it fell out that Mr. Crisparkle, going away from this conferencestill very uneasy in his mind, and very much troubled on behalf of theyoung man whom he held as a kind of prisoner in his own house, took amemorable night walk.
He walked to Cloisterham Weir.
He often did so, and consequently there was nothing remarkable in hisfootsteps tending that way. But the preoccupation of his mind sohindered him from planning any walk, or taking heed of the objects hepassed, that his first consciousness of being near the Weir, was derivedfrom the sound of the falling water close at hand.
'How did I come here!' was his first thought, as he stopped.
'Why did I come here!' was his second.
Then, he stood intently listening to the water. A familiar passage inhis reading, about airy tongues that syllable men's names, rose sounbidden to his ear, that he put it from him with his hand, as if it weretangible.
It was starlight. The Weir was full two miles above the spot to whichthe young men had repaired to watch the storm. No search had been madeup here, for the tide had been running strongly down, at that time of thenight of Christmas Eve, and the likeliest places for the discovery of abody, if a fatal accident had happened under such circumstances, alllay--both when the tide ebbed, and when it flowed again--between thatspot and the sea. The water came over the Weir, with its usual sound ona cold starlight night, and little could be seen of it; yet Mr.Crisparkle had a strange idea that something unusual hung about theplace.
He reasoned with himself: What was it? Where was it? Put it to theproof. Which sense did it address?
No sense reported anything unusual there. He listened again, and hissense of hearing again checked the water coming over the Weir, with itsusual sound on a cold starlight night.
Knowing very well that the mystery with which his mind was occupied,might of itself give the place this haunted air, he strained those hawk'seyes of his for the correction of his sight. He got closer to the Weir,and peered at its well-known posts and timbers. Nothing in the leastunusual was remotely shadowed forth. But he resolved that he would comeback early in the morning.
The Weir ran through his broken sleep, all night, and he was back againat sunrise. It was a bright frosty morning. The whole compositionbefore him, when he stood where he had stood last night, was clearlydiscernible in its minutest details. He had surveyed it closely for someminutes, and was about to withdraw his eyes, when they were attractedkeenly to one spot.
He turned his back upon the Weir, and looked far away at the sky, and atthe earth, and then looked again at that one spot. It caught his sightagain immediately, and he concentrated his vision upon it. He could notlose it now, though it was but such a speck in the landscape. Itfascinated his sight. His hands began plucking off his coat. For itstruck him that at that spot--a corner of the Weir--something glistened,which did not move and come over with the glistening water-drops, butremained stationary.
He assured himself of this, he threw off his clothes, he plunged into theicy water, and swam for the spot. Climbing the timbers, he took fromthem, caught among their interstices by its chain, a gold watch, bearingengraved upon its back E. D.
He brought the watch to the bank, swam to the Weir again, climbed it, anddived off. He knew every hole and corner of all the depths, and divedand dived and dived, until he could bear the cold no more. His notionwas, that he would find the body; he only found a shirt-pin sticking insome mud and ooze.
With these discoveries he returned to Cloisterham, and, taking NevilleLandless with him, went straight to the Mayor. Mr. Jasper was sent for,the watch and shirt-pin were identified, Neville was detained, and thewildest frenzy and fatuity of evil report rose against him. He was ofthat vindictive and violent nature, that but for his poor sister, whoalone had influence over him, and out of whose sight he was never to betrusted, he would be in the daily commission of murder. Before coming toEngland he had caused to be whipped to death sundry 'Natives'--nomadicpersons, encamping now in Asia, now in Africa, now in the West Indies,and now at the North Pole--vaguely supposed in Cloisterham to be alwaysblack, always of great virtue, always calling themselves Me, andeverybody else Massa or Missie (according to sex), and always readingtracts of the obscurest meaning, in broken English, but always accuratelyunderstanding them in the purest mother tongue. He had nearly broughtMrs. Crisparkle's grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. (Those originalexpressions were Mr. Sapsea's.) He had repeatedly said he would have Mr.Crisparkle's life. He had repeatedly said he would have everybody'slife, and become in effect the last man. He had been brought down toCloisterham, from London, by an eminent Philanthropist, and why? Becausethat Philanthropist had expressly declared: 'I owe it to myfellow-creatures that he should be, in the words of BENTHAM, where he isthe cause of the greatest danger to the smallest number.'
These dropping shots from the blunderbusses of blunderheadedness mightnot have hit him in a vital place. But he had to stand against a trainedand well-directed fire of arms of precision too. He had notoriouslythreatened the lost young man, and had, according to the showing of hisown faithful friend and tutor who strove so hard for him, a cause ofbitter animosity (created by himself, and stated by himself), againstthat ill-starred fellow. He had armed himself with an offensive weaponfor the fatal night, and he had gone off early in the morning, aftermaking preparations for departure. He had been found with traces ofblood on him; truly, they might have been wholly caused as herepresented, but they might not, also. On a search-warrant being issuedfor the examination of his room, clothes, and so forth, it was discoveredthat he had destroyed all his papers, and rearranged all his possessions,on the very afternoon of the disappearance. The watch found at the Weirwas challenged by the jeweller as one he had wound and set for EdwinDrood, at twenty minutes past two on that same afternoon; and it had rundown, before being cast into the water; and it was the jeweller'spositive opinion that it had never been re-wound. This would justify thehypothesis that the watch was taken from him not long after he left Mr.Jasper's house at midnight, in company with the last person seen withhim, and that it had been thrown away after being retained some hours.Why thrown away? If he had been murdered, and so artfully disfigured, orconcealed, or both, as that the murderer hoped identification to beimpossible, except from something that he wore, assuredly the murdererwould seek to remove from the body the most lasting, the best known, andthe most easily recognisable, things upon it. Those things would be thewatch and shirt-pin. As to his opportunities of casting them into theriver; if he were the object of these suspicions, they were easy. For,he had been seen by many persons, wandering about on that side of thecity--indeed on all sides of it--in a mis
erable and seeminglyhalf-distracted manner. As to the choice of the spot, obviously suchcriminating evidence had better take its chance of being found anywhere,rather than upon himself, or in his possession. Concerning thereconciliatory nature of the appointed meeting between the two young men,very little could be made of that in young Landless's favour; for itdistinctly appeared that the meeting originated, not with him, but withMr. Crisparkle, and that it had been urged on by Mr. Crisparkle; and whocould say how unwillingly, or in what ill-conditioned mood, his enforcedpupil had gone to it? The more his case was looked into, the weaker itbecame in every point. Even the broad suggestion that the lost young manhad absconded, was rendered additionally improbable on the showing of theyoung lady from whom he had so lately parted; for; what did she say, withgreat earnestness and sorrow, when interrogated? That he had, expresslyand enthusiastically, planned with her, that he would await the arrivalof her guardian, Mr. Grewgious. And yet, be it observed, he disappearedbefore that gentleman appeared.
On the suspicions thus urged and supported, Neville was detained, andre-detained, and the search was pressed on every hand, and Jasperlaboured night and day. But nothing more was found. No discovery beingmade, which proved the lost man to be dead, it at length became necessaryto release the person suspected of having made away with him. Nevillewas set at large. Then, a consequence ensued which Mr. Crisparkle hadtoo well foreseen. Neville must leave the place, for the place shunnedhim and cast him out. Even had it not been so, the dear old chinashepherdess would have worried herself to death with fears for her son,and with general trepidation occasioned by their having such an inmate.Even had that not been so, the authority to which the Minor Canondeferred officially, would have settled the point.
'Mr. Crisparkle,' quoth the Dean, 'human justice may err, but it must actaccording to its lights. The days of taking sanctuary are past. Thisyoung man must not take sanctuary with us.'
'You mean that he must leave my house, sir?'
'Mr. Crisparkle,' returned the prudent Dean, 'I claim no authority inyour house. I merely confer with you, on the painful necessity you findyourself under, of depriving this young man of the great advantages ofyour counsel and instruction.'
'It is very lamentable, sir,' Mr. Crisparkle represented.
'Very much so,' the Dean assented.
'And if it be a necessity--' Mr. Crisparkle faltered.
'As you unfortunately find it to be,' returned the Dean.
Mr. Crisparkle bowed submissively: 'It is hard to prejudge his case, sir,but I am sensible that--'
'Just so. Perfectly. As you say, Mr. Crisparkle,' interposed the Dean,nodding his head smoothly, 'there is nothing else to be done. No doubt,no doubt. There is no alternative, as your good sense has discovered.'
'I am entirely satisfied of his perfect innocence, sir, nevertheless.'
'We-e-ell!' said the Dean, in a more confidential tone, and slightlyglancing around him, 'I would not say so, generally. Not generally.Enough of suspicion attaches to him to--no, I think I would not say so,generally.'
Mr. Crisparkle bowed again.
'It does not become us, perhaps,' pursued the Dean, 'to be partisans.Not partisans. We clergy keep our hearts warm and our heads cool, and wehold a judicious middle course.'
'I hope you do not object, sir, to my having stated in public,emphatically, that he will reappear here, whenever any new suspicion maybe awakened, or any new circumstance may come to light in thisextraordinary matter?'
'Not at all,' returned the Dean. 'And yet, do you know, I don't think,'with a very nice and neat emphasis on those two words: 'I _don't think_ Iwould state it emphatically. State it? Ye-e-es! But emphatically?No-o-o. I _think_ not. In point of fact, Mr. Crisparkle, keeping ourhearts warm and our heads cool, we clergy need do nothing emphatically.'
So Minor Canon Row knew Neville Landless no more; and he wentwhithersoever he would, or could, with a blight upon his name and fame.
It was not until then that John Jasper silently resumed his place in thechoir. Haggard and red-eyed, his hopes plainly had deserted him, hissanguine mood was gone, and all his worst misgivings had come back. Aday or two afterwards, while unrobing, he took his Diary from a pocket ofhis coat, turned the leaves, and with an impressive look, and without onespoken word, handed this entry to Mr. Crisparkle to read:
'My dear boy is murdered. The discovery of the watch and shirt-pinconvinces me that he was murdered that night, and that his jewellery wastaken from him to prevent identification by its means. All the delusivehopes I had founded on his separation from his betrothed wife, I give tothe winds. They perish before this fatal discovery. I now swear, andrecord the oath on this page, That I nevermore will discuss this mysterywith any human creature until I hold the clue to it in my hand. That Inever will relax in my secrecy or in my search. That I will fasten thecrime of the murder of my dear dead boy upon the murderer. And, That Idevote myself to his destruction.'