childhood she had dressed as a boy when she ran away from home; and
she had the motives of protecting Rosa and her brother, Neville,
from the machinations of Jasper, who needs watching, as he is
trying to ruin Neville's already dilapidated character, and, by
spying on him, to break down his nerve. Really, of course, Neville
is quite safe. There is no corpus delicti, no carcase of the
missing Edwin Drood.

For the reasons given, Datchery might be Helena in disguise.

If so, the idea is highly ludicrous, while nothing is proved either
by the blackness of Datchery's eyebrows (Helena's were black), or
by Datchery's habit of carrying his hat under his arm, not on his
head. A person who goes so far as to wear a conspicuous white wig,
would not be afraid also to dye his eyebrows black, if he were
Edwin; while either Edwin or Helena MUST have "made up" the face,
by the use of paint and sham wrinkles. Either Helena or Edwin
would have been detected in real life, of course, but we allow for
the accepted fictitious convention of successful disguise, and for
the necessities of the novelist. A tightly buttoned surtout would
show Helena's feminine figure; but let that also pass. As to the
hat, Edwin's own hair was long and thick: add a wig, and his hat
would be a burden to him.

What is most unlike the stern, fierce, sententious Helena, is
Datchery's habit of "chaffing." He fools the ass of a Mayor,
Sapsea, by most exaggerated diference: his tone is always that of
indolent mockery, which one doubts whether the "intense" and
concentrated Helena could assume. He takes rooms in the same house
as Jasper, to whom, as to Durdles and Deputy, he introduces himself