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.
CHAPTER XI--A PICTURE AND A RING
Behind the most ancient part of Holborn, London, where certain
gabled houses some centuries of age still stand looking on the
public way, as if disconsolately looking for the Old Bourne that
has long run dry, is a little nook composed of two irregular
quadrangles, called Staple Inn.
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