But he was impatient to make that appearance, and chafed at the delay.

Also, his prestige was waning.
The village was losing interest in the mystery, and it no longer looked to him to drop hints as the holder of the secret.

That did not prevent him from dropping them.

He would bring up the subject of the murder in order to drop them.

His acquaintances who wished now to talk about other things found this practice tiresome.