"
"Shakespeare, perhaps?" Mr. Bouncer did not condescend to do more
than nod his head. "There is a murder described in _Hamlet_. Was that
supposed by the poet to have been devised suddenly?"
"I should say not."
"So should I, Mr. Bouncer. Do you remember the arrangements for the
murder in _Macbeth_? That took a little time in concocting;--didn't
it?"
"No doubt it did."
"And when Othello murdered Desdemona, creeping up to her in her
sleep, he had been thinking of it for some time?"
"I suppose he had."
"Do you ever read English novels as well as French, Mr. Bouncer?" The
unfortunate author again nodded his head. "When Amy Robsart was lured
to her death, there was some time given to the preparation,--eh?"
"Of course there was."
"Of course there was. And Eugene Aram, when he murdered a man in
Bulwer's novel, turned the matter over in his mind before he did it?"
"He was thinking a long time about it, I believe."
"Thinking about it a long time! I rather think he was. Those great
masters of human nature, those men who knew the human heart, did not
venture to describe a secret murder as coming from a man's brain
without premeditation?"
"Not that I can remember.
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