101 CHAPTER V. ROSA AND GREWGIOUS. THE next chapter brings us to Rosa again, at Miss Twinkleton's. We may remark here, that no note in the opening music suggests the tragic tone which we should expect were Rosa sorrowing for Edwin's death. We presently find her full of horror at Jasper's pursuit, but even then there is no suggestion of any feeling that Drood is dead. There are passages strongly suggestive of the contrary. She speaks of fearing to open Edwin's " generous eyes, keeping the truth from him "for his own trusting, good, good sake," as though full certain he were still alive. " of Of course the words would serve well enough were he dead; yet is there a subtle distinction between them and those she would more naturally have used if she had deemed him so. Just as, later, when she says to Grewgious, "His uncle has made love to me," we feel that she would not have said this, but " Mr. Jasper has made love to me," were Jasper's nephew really dead; so in this interview, we feel that Rosa knows Drood to be alive, though she does not know how Jasper had dealt towards the man whom he pretended to love so warmly. The next chapter-"Rosa's Flight "—is still more significant. After disclosing the state of Rosa's mind in regard to Jasper, it tells us that she determined to go to her guardian, and to go immediately. She knows that he has the power not only to protect her against Jasper, but to check the vile scheme which Jasper has threatened to carry out against Neville Landless. Noting in passing that she finds Mr. Grewgious at the open window, his shaded lamp placed far from him on a table in a corner-manifestly maintaining his watch over Neville—we see her appealing at once to Mr. Grewgious for pro tection. Let us look carefully into this part of the story. He asks her how she came, and on her telling him, he asks why she had not written to him to come and fetch her. Clearly it had been arranged that if any new development required it she was to write to him. Her answer is remarkable; "I had no time. I took a sudden And Mr. "Ah, poor resolution. Poor, poor Eddy!" Grewgious's reply is as strange: fellow, poor fellow!" He has asked her why she came, and she says, "Poor, poor Eddy." Yet he finds the reply full of meaning, and instead of asking her how it bears on his question, simply echoes her thought! What can her words mean? "I had no time. I took a sudden resolution. Poor, poor Eddy! Clearly there is reference here to something which had been arranged beforehand between Rosa and Mr. Grewgious. Doubtless when he told her Edwin was alive, but that she must keep the knowledge of this to herself, he told her also of the love for her which had sprung into existence in Eddy's heart with the recognition of her true nature. She, not Eddy, had decided that she and Edwin could never be man and wife. If Mr. Grewgious had told her, as he doubtless did, that Edwin loved her, she must have answered that she loved him only as a brother. But if Mr. Grewgious had suggested that perhaps with time a warmer feeling might find growth in her heart, and that did this chance he would wish her to tell him that one day Edwin might be more to her than a brother, she would not have rejected the thought, though her own heart might say nay to it. "Poor, poor Eddy!" Doubtless there was a reference to some such thought when Mr. Grewgious asked why she had not written to him. from her meant that her sudden resolution had no relation to Edwin's love; and "Ah, poor fellow, poor fellow!" from Mr. Grewgious was the natural answer to what her sorrowful words implied. For he, too, had loved one so like Rosa that he had just mistaken Rosa for her ("I thought you were your mother "); and he had loved without hope, like Edwin. And then she goes on, without further question from Mr. Grewgious, to say why she had suddenly come to him. "His uncle" (the uncle of the living Edwin you are sad for) "has made love to me. I cannot bear it. I shudder with horror of him, and I have come to you to protect me and all of us from him, if you will ?" Not, "if you can." She knows he can, for she knows he can at any moment announce Edwin Drood to be alive. But, "if you will." And Mr. Grewgious makes no pretence of want of power to save Rosa and all of them. "I will,' he says. "Damn him! "Confound his politics, Frustrate his knavish tricks, (The whole of this scene between Rosa and Grewgious is worthy of Dickens's very best days, for quiet humour and pathos, fun and feeling.) He is not even in a hurry to learn further particulars about Jasper's threats, so sure is he that he holds him safely. After the extraordinary outburst, in which he shows at once his detestation of Jasper and his contempt for the villain's plot, we have the laughable talk about Bazzard. Most certainly Dickens does not wish us to suppose that change of employment from |