did think of it, no doubt he found some mode of accounting for
Jasper's unworkmanlike negligence. The trouser-buttons would have
led any inquirer straight to Edwin's tailor; I incline to suspect
that neither Dickens nor Jasper noticed that circumstance. The
conscientious artist in crime cannot afford to neglect the humblest
and most obvious details.



CONCLUSION



According to my theory, which mainly rests on the unmistakable
evidence of the cover drawn by Collins under Dickens's directions,
all "ends well." Jasper comes to the grief he deserves: Helena,
after her period of mourning for Neville, marries Crisparkle: Rosa
weds her mariner. Edwin, at twenty-one, is not heart-broken, but,
a greatly improved character, takes, to quote his own words, "a
sensible interest in works of engineering skill, especially when
they are to change the whole condition of an undeveloped country"--
Egypt.

These conclusions are inevitable unless we either suppose Dickens
to have arranged a disappointment for his readers in the tableau of
Jasper and Drood, in the vault, on the cover, or can persuade
ourselves that not Drood, but some other young man, is revealed by
the light of Jasper's lantern. Now, the young man is very like
Drood, and very unlike the dark fierce Helena Landless: disguised
as Drood, this time, not as Datchery. All the difficulty as to why