CHAPTER IV
When Raikes returned to his room he seemed to himself like a sunset mocked by the adjacent horizon, with tantalizing suggestions for which it was reflectively responsible.
With the proper inspiration, there is a degree of poetry in the worst of us.
The knowledge that he would be compelled to restore the gem to its owner in the morning bestirred another comparison.
This time his idealism was not so elevated.
He likened it to a divorce from a vampire which had already digested his moral qualities.
The sapphire exhausted him.
The only parallel irritation was one which Raikes inflicted upon himself now and then.
This was on the occasions when he established himself in some unobtrusive portion of the bank and watched with greedy interest the impassive tellers handle immense sums of money with an impersonality which it was impossible for his avarice to comprehend.
The thievery of his thoughts and the ravin of his envy would have provided interesting bases of speculation for the reflective magistrate, since, if, according to the metaphysician, thoughts are things, he committed crimes daily.