can't wipe out what one has done. If I were to give back everything
I've taken--if I were to spend years in remorse and repentance, it
would be no use. In your eyes I should always be Sonia Kritchnoff, the
thief!" The great tears welled slowly out of her eyes and rolled down
her cheeks; she let them stream unheeded.

"Sonia!" cried Lupin, protesting.

But she would not hear him. She broke out with fresh vehemence, a
feverish passion: "And yet, if I'd been a thief, like so many others...
but you know why I stole. I'm not trying to defend myself, but, after
all, I did it to keep honest; and when I loved you it was not the heart
of a thief that thrilled, it was the heart of a poor girl who
loved...that's all...who loved."

"You don't know what you're doing! You're torturing me! Be quiet!"
cried Lupin hoarsely, beside himself.

"Never mind...I'm going...we shall never see one another any more," she
sobbed. "But will you...will you shake hands just for the last time?"

"No!" cried Lupin.

"You won't?" wailed Sonia in a heartrending tone.

"I can't!" cried Lupin.

"You ought not to be like this.... Last night ... if you were going to
let me go like this ... last night ... it was wrong," she wailed, and
turned to go.

"Wait, Sonia! Wait!" cried Lupin hoarsely. "A moment ago you said
something.... You said that the mere presence of a thief would
overwhelm you with disgust. Is that true?"

"Yes, I swear it is," cried Sonia.

Guerchard appeared in the doorway.

"And if I were not the man you believe?" said Lupin sombrely.

"What?" said Sonia; and a faint bewilderment mingled with her grief.
"If I were not the Duke of Charmerace?"

"Not the Duke?"

"If I were not an honest man?" said Lupin.

"You?" cried Sonia.

"If I were a thief? If I were--"

"Arsene Lupin," jeered Guerchard from the door.

Lupin turned and held out his manacled wrists for her to see.

"Arsene Lupin! ... it's ... it's true!" stammered Sonia. "But then, but
then ... it must be for my sake that you've given yourself up. And it's
for me you're going to prison. Oh, Heavens! How happy I am!"

She sprang to him, threw her arms round his neck, and pressed her lips
to his.

"And that's what women call repenting," said Guerchard.

He shrugged his shoulders, went out on to the landing, and called to
the policeman in the hall to bid the driver of the prison-van, which
was waiting, bring it up to the door.

"Oh, this is incredible!" cried L