receives the engagement ring of the late Mrs. Bud, Rosa's mother,
which is very dear to Grewgious--in the presence of Bazzard,
Grewgious's clerk, a gloomy writer of an amateur unacted tragedy.
Edwin is to return the ring to Grewgious, if he and Rosa decide not
to marry. The ring is in a case, and Edwin places it "in his
breast." We must understand, in the breast-pocket of his coat: no
other interpretation will pass muster. "Her ring--will it come
back to me?" reflects the mournful Grewgious.


THE UNACCOUNTABLE EXPEDITION


Jasper now tells Sapsea, and the Dean, that he is to make "a
moonlight expedition with Durdles among the tombs, vaults, towers,
and ruins to-night." The impossible Durdles has the keys necessary
for this, "surely an unaccountable expedition," Dickens keeps
remarking. The moon seems to rise on this night at about 7.30 p.m.
Jasper takes a big case-bottle of liquor--drugged, of course and
goes to the den of Durdles. In the yard of this inspector of
monuments he is bidden to beware of a mound of quicklime near the
yard gate. "With a little handy stirring, quick enough to eat your
bones," says Durdles. There is some considerable distance between
this "mound" of quicklime and the crypt, of which Durdles has the
key, but the intervening space is quite empty of human presence, as
the citizens are unwilling to meet ghosts.

In the crypt Durdles drinks a good deal of the drugged liquor.
"They are to ascend the great Tower,"--and why they do that is part
of the Mystery, though not an insoluble part. Before they climb,