From the thumb-joint of a
notorious criminal he can savour exquisitely morbid emotions,
while the blood-stains on an assassin's knife fill him with the
delicious lust of slaughter. In the same way predestined
spinsters obtain vicarious enjoyment of the tender passion by
reading highly coloured love-stories."
"Just as that philosophical old stick, Sir Marcus Ordeyne, dus
from this sort of thing," said Pasquale.
And he fished from the side of his chair, and held up by the tip
of a monstrous heel, the most audacious, high-instepped, red
satin slipper I ever saw.
I eyed the thing with profound disgust. I would have given a
hundred pounds for it to have vanished. In its red satin essence
it was reprehensible, and in its feminine assertion it was
compromising. How did it come there? I conjectured that
Carlotta must have been trespassing in the drawing-room and
dropped it, Cinderella-like, in her flight, when she heard me
enter the house before dinner.
Pasquale held it up and regarded me quizzically. I pretend to no
austerity of morals; but a burglar unjustly accused of theft
suffers acuter qualms of indignation than if he were a virtuous
person.
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