But why did he not destroy Tom Castleton's original manuscript?
That was what Jaffery could not understand.

Yet any one familiar with morbid psychology will tell you of a hundred analogical instances.

Some queer superstition, some reflex action of conscience, some dim, relentless force compelling the hair shirt of penitence--that is the only way in which I, who do not pretend to be a psychologist, can explain the sustained act of folly.
And when the book blazed into instantaneous success, and he accepted it gay and debonair, what could have been the state of that man's soul?
I remembered, with a shiver, the look on Adrian's face, at Mr.
Jornicroft's dinner party, as if a hand had swept the joy from it, and the snapping of the stem of the wineglass.

In the light of knowledge I looked back and recognised the feverishness of a demeanour that had been merely gay before.

Well.