e've had in France since Vidocq. In fact, he's our
national robber. Do you mean to say you don't know him?"

"Not even enough to ask him to lunch at a restaurant," said the Duke
flippantly. "What's he like?"

"Like? Nobody has the slightest idea. He has a thousand disguises. He
has dined two evenings running at the English Embassy."

"But if nobody knows him, how did they learn that?" said the Duke, with
a puzzled air.

"Because the second evening, about ten o'clock, they noticed that one
of the guests had disappeared, and with him all the jewels of the
ambassadress."

"All of them?" said the Duke.

"Yes; and Lupin left his card behind him with these words scribbled on
it:"

"'This is not a robbery; it is a restitution. You took the Wallace
collection from us.'"

"But it was a hoax, wasn't it?" said the Duke.

"No, your Grace; and he has done better than that. You remember the
affair of the Daray Bank--the savings bank for poor people?" said
Sonia, her gentle face glowing with a sudden enthusiastic animation.

"Let's see," said the Duke. "Wasn't that the financier who doubled his
fortune at the expense of a heap of poor wretches and ruined two
thousand people?"

"Yes; that's the man," said Sonia. "And Lupin stripped Daray's house
and took from him everything he had in his strong-box. He didn't leave
him a sou of the money. And then, when he'd taken it from him, he
distributed it among all the poor wretches whom Daray had ruined."

"But this isn't a thief you're talking about--it's a philanthropist,"
said the Duke.

"A fine sort of philanthropist!" broke in Germaine in a peevish tone.
"There was a lot of philanthropy about his robbing papa, wasn't there?"

"Well," said the Duke, with an air of profound reflection, "if you come
to think of it, that robbery was not worthy of this national hero. My
portrait, if you except the charm and beauty of the face itself, is not
worth much."

"If you think he was satisfied with your portrait, you're very much
mistaken. All my father's collections were robbed," said Germaine.

"Your father's collections?" said the Duke. "But they're better guarded
than the Bank of France. Your father is as careful of them as the apple
of his eye."

"That's exactly it--he was too careful of them. That's why Lupin
succeeded."

"This is very interesting," said the Duke; and he sat down on a couch
before the gap in the pictures, to go into the matter more at his ease.
"I suppose h