made up for six months of bad
luck, blunders, gropings in the dark and reverses. I certainly count
those twelve hours among the finest and the most glorious of my life."

"And Gilbert?" I asked. "What became of him?"

"He is farming his own land, way down in Algeria, under his real name,
his only name of Antoine Mergy. He is married to an Englishwoman, and
they have a son whom he insisted on calling Arsene. I often receive a
bright, chatty, warm-hearted letter from him."

"And Mme. Mergy?"

"She and her little Jacques are living with them."

"Did you see her again?"

"I did not."

"Really!"

Lupin hesitated for a few moments and then said with a smile:

"My dear fellow, I will let you into a secret that will make me seem
ridiculous in your eyes. But you know that I have always been as
sentimental as a schoolboy and as silly as a goose. Well, on the
evening when I went back to Clarisse Mergy and told her the news of the
day--part of which, for that matter, she already knew--I felt two
things very thoroughly. One was that I entertained for her a much deeper
feeling than I thought; the other that she, on the contrary, entertained
for me a feeling which was not without contempt, not without a rankling
grudge nor even a certain aversion."

"Nonsense! Why?"

"Why? Because Clarisse Mergy is an exceedingly honest woman and because
I am... just Arsene Lupin."

"Oh!"

"Dear me, yes, an attractive bandit, a romantic and chivalrous
cracksman, anything you please. For all that, in the eyes of a really
honest woman, with an upright nature and a well-balanced mind, I am only
the merest riff-raff."

I saw that the wound was sharper than he was willing to admit, and I
said:

"So you really loved her?"

"I even believe," he said, in a jesting tone, "that I asked her to marry
me. After all, I had saved her son, had I not?... So... I thought. What
a rebuff!... It produced a coolness between us... Since then..."

"You have forgotten her?"

"Oh, certainly! But it required the consolations of one Italian, two
Americans, three Russians, a German grand-duchess and a Chinawoman to do
it!"

"And, after that...?"

"After that, so as to place an insuperable barrier between myself and
her, I got married."

"Nonsense! You got married, you, Arsene Lupin?"

"Married, wedded, spliced, in the most lawful fashion. One of the
greatest names in France. An only daughter. A colossal fortune... What!
You don't know the story? W