Chapter 77

70 MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE “In respect to the insinuations leveled at Beauvais, you will be willing to dismiss them in a breath. You have already fathomed the true character of this good gentleman. He is a busybody , with much of romance and little of wit. Any one so constituted will readily so conduct himself, upon occasion of real excitement, as to render himself liable to suspicion on the part of the over-acute or the ill-disposed. M. Beauvais (as it appears from your notes) had some personal interviews with the editor of ‘L’Etoile/ and offended him by venturing an opinion that the corpse, notwithstanding the theory of the editor, was, in sober fact, that of Marie. ‘He persists/ says the paper, ‘in asserting the corpse to be that of Marie, but cannot give a circumstance, in addition to those which we have commented upon, to make others believe/ Now, without readverting to the fact that stronger evidence ‘to make others believe’ could never have been adduced, it may be remarked that a man may very well be understood to believe, in a case of this kind, without the ability to advance a single reason for the belief of a second party. Nothing is more vague than impressions of individual identity. Each man recognizes his neighbor, yet there are few instances in which any one is prepared to give a reason for his recognition. The edition of ‘L’Etoile’ had no right to be offended at Mr. Beauvais’ unreasoning belief. “The suspicious circumstances which invest him will be found to tally much better with my hypothesis of romantic busybodyism , 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 keyhole ; 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