Books · 1874
To vice, innocence must always seem only a superior kind of chicanery.
— Ouida ‧ Two Little Wooden Shoes
Behind the line May contain spoilers.
Our reading
An editorial interpretation.
Someone steeped in vice can't imagine genuine goodness, so they read innocence as a cleverer kind of trick. Ouida's point is that corruption projects its own scheming onto everyone else. Chicanery here simply means trickery, and innocence gets accused of it.
Context reviewed