...of a murder scene

Stage directions for last silent scene: door - wide open. Table - thrust away from it. Carpet - bulging up at table foot in a frozen wave. Chair - lying close by dead body of man in purplish brown suit and slippers. Automatic pistol not visible. It is under him. Cabinet where the miniatures had been - empty. On the other (small) table, on which ages ago a porcelain ballet-dancer stood (later transferred to another room) lies a woman's glove, black outside, white inside. By the striped sofa stands a smart suitcase, with a coloured label still adhering to it: 'Rouginard, Hotel Brittania'.

[Laughter in the Dark, Nabokov, V.]