Neville Landless, arising out of
his furious conduct on that first occasion. You know that I came
to you, extremely apprehensive, on my dear boy's behalf, of his mad
violence. You know that I even entered in my Diary, and showed the
entry to you, that I had dark forebodings against him. Mr.
Grewgious ought to be possessed of the whole case. He shall 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 good
enough to understand that the communication he has made to me has
hopefully influenced my mind, in spite of its having been, before
this mysterious occurrence took place, profoundly impressed against
young Landless.'
This fairness troubled the Minor Canon much. He felt that he was
not as open in his own dealing. He charged against himself
reproachfully that he had suppressed, so far, the two points of a
second strong outbreak of temper against Edwin Drood on the part of
Neville, and of the passion of jealousy having, to his own certain
knowledge, flamed up in Neville's breast against him. He was
convinced of Neville's innocence of any part in the ugly
disappearance; and yet so many little circumstances combined so
wofully against him, that he dreaded to add two more to their
cumulative weight. He was among the truest of men; but he had been
balancing in his mind, much to its distress, whether his
volunteering to tell these two fragments of truth, at this time,
would not be tantamount to a piecing together of falsehood in the
place of truth.
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