The greatest tragedies in the world, provided they happen to other people, have singularly little effect upon the externals of our own lives.

There was certainly not a soul in Soto's that night who did not know that Bobby Fairfax had been arrested in the bar below for the murder of Victor Bidlake, had taken poison and died on the way to the police station.

Yet the same number of dinners were ordered and eaten, the same quantity of wine drunk.

The management considered that they had shown marvellous delicacy of feeling by restraining the orchestra from their usual musical gymnastics until after the service of dinner.
Conversation, in consequence, buzzed louder than ever.

One speculation in particular absorbed the attention of every single person in the room--why had Bobby Fairfax, at the zenith of a very successful career, risked the gallows and actually accepted death for the sake of killing Victor Bidlake, a young man with whom, so far as anybody knew, he had no cause of quarrel whatever?
There were many theories, many people who knew the real facts and whispered them into a neighbour's ear, only to have them contradicted a few moments later.