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In another age, the scenes between Mrs. Lupin and Mrs. Chump, greatly significant for humanity as they are, will be given without offence on one side or martyrdom on the other. At present, and before our sentimentalists are a concrete, it would be profitless rashness to depict them. Lupin fluttered between the belligerents, doing her best to be a medium for the restoration of peace.
And from those hands, from that brain he was unable to extract the faintest echo of the truth so near at hand! Oh, that impalpable and formidable obstacle, against which all his efforts hurled themselves in vain, that obstacle built up of silence and oblivion! How clearly it bore the mark of Arsene Lupin!
"Shall I write Arsene?" said Charolais, in a horrified tone. "Why not?" said Lupin. "It's your charming name, isn't it?" Bonavent pricked up his ears, and looked at Charolais with a new interest. Charolais shrugged his shoulders, finished the letter, blotted it, put it in an envelope, addressed it, and handed it to Lupin.
And when the commissary asked us to repeat the story of the robbery, I exclaimed: "Monsieur, really, Arsene Lupin is getting the start of us. My automobile is waiting in the courtyard. If you will be so kind as to use it, we can try...." The commissary smiled, and replied: "The idea is a good one; so good, indeed, that it is already being carried out. Two of my men have set out on bicycles.
He held Lupin safe; and it was for Beautrelet now to select the hour and the manner of the combat. He walked away. Near the bridge, he met two country-girls carrying pails of milk. He asked: "What is the name of the castle over there, behind the trees?" "That's the Chateau de l'Aiguille, sir." He had put his question without attaching any importance to it.
"What do I risk? Your room is on the third floor. Daubrecq suspects nothing." "But the others!" "The others? If it was to their interest to play me a trick, they'd have tried before now. I'm in their way, that's all. They're not afraid of me. So till later, Victoire, at five o'clock exactly." One further surprise awaited Lupin.
She herself seemed very much worn out and in need of rest. Lupin did not disturb her contemplation. He looked at her anxiously, with an attention which she did not perceive, and he noticed the wider rings round her eyes and the deeper marks of wrinkles.
Then consider this startling situation: Arsene Lupin was wandering about within the limited bounds of a transatlantic steamer; in that very small corner of the world, in that dining saloon, in that smoking room, in that music room! Arsene Lupin was, perhaps, this gentleman....or that one....my neighbor at the table.... the sharer of my stateroom....
It was quite within the bounds of possibility that Daubrecq, armed as he was, would remain master of the field and that the conversation would take an absolutely different turn from that which Lupin anticipated. And this prospect angered him somewhat. He drew himself up, as he heard a sound of footsteps approaching. Daubrecq entered.
And that past tense might have spoken a volume. But Destiny was at fault, and the Angel would have had to play pianissimo. Miss Lupin came in, bearing a log that had taken twenty years to grow and one to dry. The glowing embers were getting spent, and the open hearth called for reimbursement. It seemed a shame those sweet fresh lichens should burn; but then, it would never do to let the fire out!
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