Page:Arthur B Reeve - The Dream Doctor.djvu/228

 and in one instance a dying victim stole the snuff-box of his confessor.

"It is the pleasure and excitement of stealing, not the desire for the object stolen, which distinguishes the kleptomaniac from the ordinary thief. Usually the kleptomaniac is a woman, with an insane desire to steal for the mere sake of stealing. The morbid craving for excitement which is at the bottom of so many motiveless and useless crimes, again and again has driven apparently sensible men and women to ruin and even to suicide. It is a form of emotional insanity, not loss of control of the will, but perversion of the will. Some are models in their lucid intervals, but when the mania is on them they cannot resist. The very act of taking constitutes the pleasure, not possession. One must take into consideration many things, for such diseases as kleptomania belong exclusively to civilisation; they are the product of an age of sensationalism. Naturally enough, woman, with her delicately balanced nervous organisation, is the first and chief offender."

Kennedy had seated himself at the table and was writing hastily. When he had finished, he held the papers in his hand to dry.

He handed one sheet each to Bentley and Donnelly. We crowded about. Kennedy had simply written out two bills for the necklace and the collar of pearls.

"Send them in to Mr. Willoughby," he added. "I think he will be glad to pay them to hush up the scandal."

We looked at each other in amazement at the revelation.