The Mystery of Edwin Drood

clerical company, two rooks will suddenly detach themselves from the rest, will retrace their flight for some distance, and will there poise and linger; conve

hoir scuffling out again, and divers venerable persons of rook-like aspect dispersi

rnoon, and a wintry shudder goes among the little pools on the cracked, uneven flag-stones, and through the giant elm-trees as they shed a gust of tears. Their fallen leaves lie strewn thickly about. Some of these leaves, in a timid rush,

er was th

Mr.

stayed

for him, your Reverence. He

w tone with this touch of correction, as who should say: 'You may of

igh with excursion parties, declines with a silent loftine

isparkle has remarked, it is better to say taken-taken-' r

Tope deferen

rly,

. Jasper was

r. Crisparkle interposes with the same to

unflattered by this indirect homage) cond

fit on him after a little. His memory grew Dazed.' Mr. Tope, with his eyes on the Reverend Mr. Crisparkle, shoots this word out, as defying him to improve upon it: 'and a dimness and giddiness crept over him as strange as ever I saw: thou

e home quite himself, h

ving his fire kindled up, for it's chilly after the wet, and the Cathedral h

the fast-darkening scene, involving in shadow the pendent masses of ivy and creeper covering the building's front. As the deep Cathedral-bell strikes the hour, a ripple of

nephew with him

ry shadow betwixt his two windows-the one looking this way, and the

n his nephew. Our affections, however laudable, in this transitory world, should never master us; we should guide them, guide them. I find I a

him that you had the kindness

shed to know how he was. By all

ood spirits may, and directs his comely gaiters towards the ruddy dining-room of the snu

on, early riser, musical, classical, cheerful, kind, good-natured, social, contented, and boy-like; Mr. Crisparkle, Minor Canon and good man, lately 'Coach' upon the chief Paga

Tope that you have n

s nothing

k a litt

pe has made too much of it, I suspect. It's his trade to make t

expressly from the Dean-th

e, is: 'Certainly; with my re

ar that you exp

dear fellow

ou more good than

For I love him dearly, and I don'

his manner. It is mostly in shadow. Even when the sun shines brilliantly, it seldom touches the grand piano in the recess, or the folio music-books on the stand, or the book-shelves on the wall, or the unfinished picture of a blooming schoolgirl hanging over the chimneypiece; her flowing brown hair tied with a blue

erds, te-e-ell me; tell me-e-e, have you seen (have you seen, have you seen, have you seen) my-y-y Flo-o-ora-a pass this way!"' Melodiously good Minor Can

us and somebody else, at the stair-foot. Mr. Jasper listens, starts

ear E

ck! So glad

wn here in your own corner. Your feet are not w

oddley-coddley, there's a good fellow. I like

ward coat, hat, gloves, and so forth. Once for all, a look of intentness and intensity-a look of hungry, exacting, watchful, and yet devoted affection-is always, now and ever afterwards, on the

w I'll take my corner,

closes a small inner room pleasantly lighted and prepared, wh

ung fellow, with a clap of his hands. 'Look

Mr. Jasper answers,

ow? No; not mine,

there is yet in it some strange power of sudde

returns to her. Come, uncle; take your du

s shoulder, Jasper cordially and gaily lays a hand on his

. Tope!' cries the boy

in,' retorts the Verger's wife

handsome. Give me a kiss bec

being saluted. 'Your uncle's too much wrapt up in you, that's where it is. He makes so much of yo

al smile, 'and so do you, Ned, that Uncle and Nephew are words prohibited here by common

ss, Edwin Drood! Please to

s said, while it is in course of being disposed of. At length the cloth is drawn, an

s on: 'do you really and truly feel as if the ment

er than their nephews,' is the reply, '

ozen years or so? And some uncles, in large families, are even youn

hy

e as Begone, dull Care! that turned a young man gray, and Begone, d

y n

no Happy returns proposed! Pussy, Jack,

extended hand, as if it were at once his giddy head and

Hooray, hooray, hooray!-And now, Jack, let's have a little talk about Pussy. Two pairs

r music?

llow you are, Jack! But I know, Lor

rn anything,

ad, that's it. B

Mr. Jasp

he looki

n includes the portrait as he retur

ing one eye, and taking a corrected prospect of it over a level bridge of nut-crackers in the air: 'Not badly

Edwin Dr

Mr. Jasp

h an air of pique, 'I see it whenever I go to see Pussy. If I don't find it on her face, I leave it

ack. Slowly, on

on the part o

on bot

ost your to

found yo

-isn't it, you k

s his dark eyeb

a matter? There, Jack! I tell you! If I could choose, I w

ve not got

ather must needs marry us together by anticipation. Why the-Devil, I was going

Jasper remonstrates, in a

or's plan. You have no uncomfortable suspicion that you are forced upon anybody, nor has anybody an uncomfortable suspicion that she is forced upon you, or th

, dear fell

ave hurt your f

have hurt m

rightfully ill! There's a stra

ght hand, as if at once to disarm apprehension and ga

f the medicine steal over me like a blight or a cloud, and pass. You see them in the act

ts for a few moments rigid, and then, with thick drops standing on his forehead, and a sharp catch of his breath, becomes as he was before. On his so subsiding in his chair, his nephew gently and assiduously tends him while he

ton in every house; but you thought

when I come to consider that even in Pussy's h

fe mine is. No whirl and uproar around me, no distracting commerce or calculation, no

d your being so much respected as Lay Precentor, or Lay Clerk, or whatever you call it, of this Cathedral; your enjoying the reputation of having done such wonders with the choir; your choosing your societ

you were tendin

ack?' (Much

y existence grinds me away by the gra

l! Quite

round. No wretched monk who droned his life away in that gloomy place, before me, can have been more tired of it than I am. He could take for

Drood returns, astonished, bending forward in his chair to lay a symp

ought so. They

' says Edwin, meditating

she tell

here. You remember wh

she phr

become your pupil, and that y

s at the portrait. The

rfulness, 'I must subdue myself to my vocation: which is much the same thing o

sacredly pres

sed it in yo

t friends, and because you love and trust me

's eyes, and as the uncle holds the n

nder of music-in his niche-may be troubled with some stray sort of ambi

dear

will re

am I likely to forget what you

as a warn

ack, Edwin pauses for an instant to consider the application of

ay I am young; and perhaps I shall not grow worse as I grow older. At all events, I hope I have something impressible wit

figure becomes so marvellous that

moved, and very unlike your usual self. Of course I knew that you were extremely fond of me,

mallest stage of transition between the two extreme stat

know, I shall carry Pussy off from school as Mrs. Edwin Drood. I shall then go engineering into the East, and Pussy with me. And although we have our little tiffs now, arising out of a certain unavoidable flatness that attends our love-making, owing to its end being all settled beforehand, still I have no doubt of our getting on capitally then, when it's done and can't be helped. In sho

nimated look and gesture attending the delivery of these words. He remains in that attitude after they, are spoken, as if in a k

t be warn

, J

t be warn

really consider myself in danger, I don't

and walk in t

the Nuns' House, and leaving a parcel there? Only gloves for Pussy; as

attitude, murmurs: '"Nothing

d to-night, or the poetry is gone. It's against regulations for

his attitude, and t