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The heart beats stolidly under its load, and seeet the time when it was not so oppressed No one knows better than we physicians the danger of this autocracy of grief, and I watched Gith a solicitude at ti on despair But, as I said before, she always seemed to show more interest in affairs when Maitland was present, and, on the night in question, his abrupt and unexpected entrance surprised her into the betrayal of more pleasure than she would have wished us to note, and, indeed, so quickly did she conceal her confusion that I was the only one who noticed it Maitland was too busy with the news he brought
"Well, Miss Darrow," he began at once, "at last your detective has got a clue--not much of a one--but still a clue I can pick thea et the chance"
Somebody has already called attention to the fact that women are more or less curious, and there are well-authenticated cases on record where this inquisitiveness has even extended to things which did not immediately concern themselves; so I have little doubt I shall be believed when I say the woht Maitland with an earnestness quite unnecessary--(it would have required a great deal to have prevented his telling it)--to begin at the beginning, and relate the whole thing He readily acceded to this request, and began by telling them the experiences which I have just narrated It was, he said, during the last act of Sardou's "Cleopatra" that the idea had suddenly coe the plan of search from the analytical to the synthetical
"You see," he continued, "I had fro the exact way in which the crime was committed I now determined to ascertain how, under the same circumstances, I could commit such a crime, and leave behind no other evidences of the deed than those which are in our possession I began to read detective stories, with all the avidity of a Western Union Telegraph er, and, of course, read those by Conan Doyle The assertion of 'Sherlock Holmes' that there is no novelty in crime; that crimes, like history, repeat themselves; and that criminals read and copy each other's methods, deeply impressed me, and I at once said to inal, whom did he copy?'