'They have looked forward to it so, poor pets!' 'Ah! but I fear it will be a worse disappointment to Jack,' said Edwin Drood, with a start.

'I never thought of Jack!' Her swift and intent look at him as he said the words could no more be recalled than a flash of lightning can.

But it appeared as though she would have instantly recalled it, if she could; for she looked down, confused, and breathed quickly.
'You don't doubt its being a blow to Jack, Rosa ?' She merely replied, and that evasively and hurriedly: Why should she?
She had not thought about it.

He seemed, to her, to have so little to do with it.
'My dear child! can you suppose that any one so wrapped up in another--Mrs.Tope's expression: not mine--as Jack is in me, could fail to be struck all of a heap by such a sudden and complete change in my life?
I say sudden, because it will be sudden to _him_, you know.' She nodded twice or thrice, and her lips parted as if she would have assented.

But she uttered no sound, and her breathing was no slower.
'How shall I tell Jack ?' said Edwin, ruminating.