Jasper's self-absorption in his nephew when he was alive, and his unceasing pursuit of the inquiry how he came by his death, if he were dead, were themes so rife in the place, that no one appeared able to suspect the possibility of foul play at his hands.

She had asked herself the question, 'Am I so wicked in my thoughts as to conceive a wickedness that others cannot imagine ?' Then she had considered, Did the suspicion come of her previous recoiling from him before the fact?
And if so, was not that a proof of its baselessness?
Then she had reflected, 'What motive could he have, according to my accusation ?' She was ashamed to answer in her mind, 'The motive of gaining _me_!' And covered her face, as if the lightest shadow of the idea of founding murder on such an idle vanity were a crime almost as great.
She ran over in her mind again, all that he had said by the sun-dial in the garden.

He had persisted in treating the disappearance as murder, consistently with his whole public course since the finding of the watch and shirt-pin.

If he were afraid of the crime being traced out, would he not rather encourage the idea of a voluntary disappearance?
He had even declared that if the ties between him and his nephew had been less strong, he might have swept 'even him' away from her side.

Was that like his having really done so?
He had spoken of laying his six months' labours in the cause of a just vengeance at her feet.