et. The latter made but one friend in this time--a lodger
whose window adjoined his own. This lodger was Lieutenant Tartar, a
retired young naval officer. Tartar might have lived in fine apartments,
for he was rich, but he had been so long on shipboard that he felt more
at home where the walls were low enough for him to knock his head on the
ceiling. He used to climb across to Neville's room by the window ledges,
and they became friendly--the warmer friends when Mr. Crisparkle
discovered in the lieutenant a schoolmate who had once saved his life.

Later, too, Helena left Miss Twinkleton's Seminary and came to be with
her brother. And so a year went by.

Vacation arrived, and one day when Rosebud was alone at Nun's House,
Jasper, for the first time since Edwin Drood's disappearance, came to
see her.

He found her in the garden, and she felt again the repulsion and fear
she had always felt at sight of him. This time the choir master threw
away all concealment. He told her that he had always loved her
hopelessly and madly, though while she was betrothed to his nephew he
had hidden the fact. She answered indignantly that, by look if not by
word, he had always been false to Edwin Drood; that he had made her life
unhappy by his pursuit of her, and that, though she had shrunk from
opening his nephew's eyes, she had always known he was a wicked man.

Then, maddened by her dislike, Jasper swore that no one else should ever
marry her--that he would pursue her to the death, and that if she
repulsed him he would bring dreadful ruin upon Neville Landless. He said
this, no doubt, knowing that Neville loved Rosebud, and thinking,
perhaps, that she loved him in return.

When Jasper left her, Rosebud was faint from fear of his wicked eyes.
She made up her mind to go at once for protection to Mr. Grewgious in
London, and, leaving a note for Miss Twinkleton, she left by the next
omnibus.

She told her guardian her story, he told it to Mr. Crisparkle, who came
to London next morning, and between them they told Lieutenant Tartar.
While Rosebud visited with Helena the three men took counsel together,
agreeing that Jasper was a villain and planning how best to deal with
him.

The next time the choir master visited the opium garret the old woman
tracked him back to Cloisterham, with more success--with such success,
indeed, that she heard him sing in the cathedral and found out his name
from a stranger whom she encountered. This strange