Commonplace Book

'"A scavenger of genius," I replied.

"A what?"

"The editor of an extremely successful weekly paper of the social variety. In his youth he produced a witty and improper novel, which everybody said it was impossible to read, and everybody read. It affected to be autobiographical. Now he has ceased to be immoral - at all events in print - having laid to heart the golden maxim that public confession of the sins of others is on the whole an even more paying speculation than public confession of sins of your own. I am afraid he has also ceased to be witty. That is a matter for regret."

from The Carissima by Lucas Malet (Phase First, Chapter III)