Atlas Nightshade

Day 130

“The suspicious circumstances which invest him, will be found to

tally much better with my hypothesis of romantic busy-bodyism,

than with the reasoner’s suggestion of guilt. Once adopting the

more charitable interpretation, we shall find no difficulty in

comprehending the rose in the key-hole; the ‘Marie’ upon the

slate; the ‘elbowing the male relatives out of the way;’ the

‘aversion to permitting them to see the body;’ the caution given

to Madame B——, that she must hold no conversation with the

gendarme until his return (Beauvais’); and, lastly, his apparent

determination ‘that nobody should have anything to do with the

proceedings except himself.’ It seems to me unquestionable that

Beauvais was a suitor of Marie’s; that she coquetted with him;

and that he was ambitious of bei