Whether from commiseration for a woman of so miserable a destiny; or from the
morbid curiosity that gives a fictitious value even to common or worthless things; or by whatever other intangible circumstance was then, as now, sufficient to bestow, on some persons, what others might seek in vain; or because Hester really filled a gap which must otherwise have remained vacant; it is certain that she had ready and fairly equited employment for as many hours as she saw fit to occupy with her needle.
Each new face of the thousands that came within the anthropoid's ken must be carefully scrutinized, much to the horror of many of his victims; but at last, failing, apparently, to discover whom he sought, the great ape relapsed into
morbid indifference, only occasionally evincing interest in a passing face.
And yet, the older, more
morbid drinkers, more jaded with life and more disillusioned, who kill themselves, do so usually after a long debauch, when their nerves and brains are thoroughly poison-soaked.
Sixteen months after their marriage she died, and on a
morbid impulse of remorse for inconsiderateness in his treatment of her Rossetti buried his poems, still unpublished, in her coffin.
On the following day, hearing none of those noisy indications of revelry, I concluded that the inhuman feast was terminated; and feeling a kind of
morbid curiosity to discover whether the Ti might furnish any evidence of what had taken place there, I proposed to Kory-Kory to walk there.
I know all this sounds
morbid and exaggerated, but it isn't.
Pontellier no trace of that
morbid condition which her husband had reported to him.
"My worthy Ned," I answered, "to the poet, a pearl is a tear of the sea; to the Orientals, it is a drop of dew solidified; to the ladies, it is a jewel of an oblong shape, of a brilliancy of mother-of-pearl substance, which they wear on their fingers, their necks, or their ears; for the chemist it is a mixture of phosphate and carbonate of lime, with a little gelatine; and lastly, for naturalists, it is simply a
morbid secretion of the organ that produces the mother-of-pearl amongst certain bivalves."
He had published some very astonishing facts in connection with the transfusion of blood, and in addition was known to be doing valuable work on
morbid growths.
The visible change in Edgar was that he grew
morbid, sad, silent; the neighbours thought he was going mad.
His sunken eye-pits were of
morbid hue, and the light in his eyes had waned.
On the other hand, these
morbid imaginings (as I was far from unwilling to consider them) had one and all deserted me in the sane, clean company of the capital young fellow in the next room.