Oct. a, 1884.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



341 



the way, how thoroughly Grewgious takes the niiinagenient 

 of everything at about this time. They all defer to him, and 

 his whole manner sliows that he is master of the situation. 



A visitor is announced, and Crisparkle, not knowing 

 whom it may be, is for not seeing him. But Grewgious 

 advises that, whoever it may be, he should come in. " It 

 is a business principle of mine," he says, " not to close up 

 any direction, but to keep an eye on every direction that 

 may present itself I could relate an anecdote in point, 

 but that it would be premature." What is clear from 

 this, is that a time is approaching when Mr. Grewgious 

 will have a good deal to disclose. What is not cleai-, is 

 the nature of the special experience he refers to. It bears of 

 course on the Drood mystery, or its disclosure could not be 

 spoken of as premature. But,,among the scores of things it 

 Qiiight be, one cannot well guess what it was. Possibly Mr. 

 Ctrewgious refers to the unexpected use he had found for 

 Bazzard, or perhaps to the events which had suggested the 

 " Datchery assumption." Be this as it may, Mr. Grewgious 

 is obviously preparing for disclosures which will astonish 

 many, and crush Jasper to the ground. 



The meeting of Tartar and Crisparkle is a rare bit of 

 " Dickens." So also is the behaviour of Grewgious at this 

 point ("I am proud to make your acquaintance. I hope 

 you didn't take cold. I hope you were not inconvenienced 

 by swallowing too much water. How have you been 

 since?" This is as funny as anything in Pickwick, though 

 not — like so much in Pickwick — overdrawn). Mr. Grew- 

 gious presently has an idea. He has seen that Tartar is 

 (he very man to help Neville and Helena. He is the very 

 man too to defeat "our local friend" ("on whom I beg 

 to bestow a passing but hearty malediction, with the kind 

 permission of my reverend friend "). 



We learn here that Grewgious's watch of Neville has 

 led him to suspect, possibly to know, that Jasper employs 

 some " hanger-on of Staple " to watch Neville during his 

 own absence at Cloisterham. I am half inclined to imagine 

 — though I must confess I have scarcely any evidence to 

 support the notion — that Grewgious has cleverly arranged 

 matters so that Bazzard has fallen into Jasper's way, and 

 been employed by him on this very service. If Jasper had 

 so met Bazzard, hanging about after his manner, and had 

 .suggested such work to him, we can imagine that Grew- 

 gious's first idea when he heard of it would have been to 

 tell Bazzard indignantly to reject the proposition ; but on 

 second thoughts he might have found here " a direction 

 which had chanced to open," and had applied his business 

 principle of keeping his eye on every direction presenting 

 itself. In such a case that would assuredly have been " an 

 anecdote " very much " in point," but which it would have 

 been premature to relate. And this would have been a 

 detail thoroughly in Dickens's style, — Jasper trusting 

 Bazzard with full knowledge of his own whereabouts (and 

 Grewgious seems better able to follow Jasper's movements 

 than otherwise we could expect), employing him to traduce 

 Neville to Landless, and, in tine, delivering himself up, 

 not knowing what he was doing, to an employe of his 

 enemies. This would be good. But I think I see my way 

 to something better yet, and still more in Dickens's style. 

 What if Bazzard tried to play a double game, something 

 after the manner of Silas Wegg, whom, of all Dickens's 

 characters, he most resembles, and if Grewgious allowed 

 this to go on in such sort that the discomfiture of Bazzard 

 became as interesting a minor feature of the denouement 

 as the discomfiture of Silas Wegg in the denouement of 

 " Our Mutual Friend." However, this is necessarily mere 

 guesswork ; not, like most of the considerations I have 

 brought foward, a direct result of the analysis of the 

 evidence. 



The closing parts of thi.s chapter and the whole of the 

 next bear strongly on the development of the story. 

 Tartar's rooms are placed at Rosa's service for her inter 

 view with Helena, and also, be it noticed, at the service of 

 such "comers and goers", as Mr. Grewgious may wish to 

 visit the Landlesses without being seen by Jasper's spy. 

 Tartar undertakes to visit Neville daily, to see whether 

 Jasper — in his plan for isolating Neville from all friends 

 and wearing his dailj' life out grain by grain — will com- 

 municate in some way with Tartar to warn him off from 

 Neville. We see opportunities here for abundance of in- 

 teresting matter. Indeed, one wonders how Dickens was 

 to have got into the other half of the work all that seems 

 promised in the later parts of the first half. 



Of course, it is made clear that Rosa and Tartar have 

 fallen in love at first sight. We know certainly too that 

 this love is to " end well," though its course may not run 

 smoothly all the way. But even in entering on this part of 

 the story, by which the fortunes of Rosa, the chief heroine, 

 are to be disposed of, Dickens does not fail to throw some 

 sidelight on the main plot of his story, though they are 

 only to be caught by the keener-sighted. Thus just after 

 we have been told, in Dickens's fashion, that Rosa thinks 

 more of Tartar than Edwin were he still atfianced to her, 

 (or did he still love her though no longer atfianced) would 

 approve (I mean in the words relating to Rosa's hat), the 

 two start, arm in arm, Crisparkle walking in front. If 

 Edwin is dead, or Rosa so supposes, this would not be an 

 occasion for thought of him, especially as Rosa had no 

 reason up to the time of Edwin's disappearance, to suppose 

 he loved her more than otliers did. But if Edwin is 

 alive and Rosa knows it, if further Edwin has told 

 Grewgious and Grewgious Rosa that he — Edwin — now 

 loves her, but she has been unable to respond as he 

 would wish (though not saying that she can never care 

 for him except as a brother), — this moment, when she 

 is just entering "the country of the magic beanstalk" 

 the dreamland of love, would bring Edwin to her 

 thoughts. As Helena, a little later, recognising Rosa's 

 love for Tartar, " seemed to compassionate somebody " — 

 that somebody being Neville — so Rosa, recognising, though 

 half unconsciously, her nascent love would at the moment 

 compassionate another — that other being Edwin. " ' Poor, 

 poor Eddy ! ' thought Rosa, as they went along." Consider 

 how full of meaning all this is. Dickens was not so poor 

 an artist as to throw in the thought of Edwin's mys- 

 terious disappearance, or even his supposed death, at the 

 moment of Rosa's incipient love for Tartar. It is certain 

 that Rosa thinks of another's love, not of another's death, 

 at this moment. She must know, then, that Edwin loves 

 her and — now, for the first time — that his love is hopeless. 

 She must know, therefore, that he is alive. All this 

 corresponds well with what we have already become 

 assured of, and therefore is not new. But it is worthy of 

 notice how Dickens multiplies sidelights for observant 

 readers, and how little he fears lest the careless reader 

 should detect his meaning. 



Helena's love for Crisparkle is shown in the second of 

 these two chapters relating to Rosa, Tartar, and Neville 

 Landless. " I could believe any such thing of Mr. Cri- 

 sparkle," she says, with a mantling face, supjjosing Rosa to 

 have spoken of Crisparkle saving Tartar's life (" more 

 blushes in the beanstalk country "). We learn from this 

 way of speaking, not only that Helena loves Crisparkle (we 

 already know he loves her), but that their love, like that of 

 the other pair, is to end well. For Neville, then, and for 

 Edwin, we have no such promise. Yet we feel that the 

 end of these two, though both are unfortunate in love, is 

 not to be the same. Neville is to die, Edwin is to remain 



