Sapsea, and then again he would defer.
He washed his hands as clean as he could of all horrible
suspicions, unless it should appear to Mr. Sapsea that some such
were inseparable from his last companion before his disappearance
(not on good terms with previously), and then, once more, he would
defer. His own state of mind, he being distracted with doubts, and
labouring under dismal apprehensions, was not to be safely trusted;
but Mr. Sapsea's was.
Mr. Sapsea expressed his opinion that the case had a dark look; in
short (and here his eyes rested full on Neville's countenance), an
Un-English complexion. Having made this grand point, he wandered
into a denser haze and maze of nonsense than even a mayor might
have been expected to disport himself in, and came out of it with
the brilliant discovery that to take the life of a fellow-creature
was to take something that didn't belong to you. He wavered
whether or no he should at once issue his warrant for the committal
of Neville Landless to jail, under circumstances of grave
suspicion; and he might have gone so far as to do it but for the
indignant protest of the Minor Canon: who undertook for the young
man's remaining in his own house, and being produced by his own
hands, whenever demanded. Mr. Jasper then understood Mr. Sapsea to
suggest that the river should be dragged, that its banks should be
rigidly examined, that particulars of the disappearance should be
sent to all outlying places and to London, and that placards and
advertisements should be widely circulated imploring Edwin Drood,
if for any unknown reason he had withdrawn himself from his uncle's
home and society, to take pity on that loving kinsman's sore
bereavement and distress, and somehow inform him that he was yet
alive.
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