ell, it's worth hearing."

And, straightway, Lupin, who was in a confidential vein, began to tell
me the story of his marriage to Angelique de Sarzeau-Vendome, Princesse
de Bourbon-Conde, to-day Sister Marie-Auguste, a humble nun in the
Visitation Convent... [*]

* See The Confessions of Arsene Lupin By Maurice Leblanc
Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos

But, after the first few words, he stopped, as though his narrative had
suddenly ceased to interest him, and he remained pensive.

"What's the matter, Lupin?"

"The matter? Nothing."

"Yes, yes... There... now you're smiling... Is it Daubrecq's secret
receptacle, his glass eye, that's making you laugh?"

"Not at all."

"What then?"

"Nothing, I tell you... only a memory."

"A pleasant memory?"

"Yes!... Yes, a delightful memory even. It was at night, off the Ile
de Re, on the fishing-smack in which Clarisse and I were taking Gilbert
away.... We were alone, the two of us, in the stern of the boat... And
I remember ... I talked... I spoke words and more words... I said all
that I had on my heart... And then... then came silence, a perturbing
and disarming silence."

"Well?"

"Well, I swear to you that the woman whom I took in my arms that night
and kissed on the lips--oh, not for long: a few seconds only, but
no matter!--I swear before heaven that she was something more than a
grateful mother, something more than a friend yielding to a moment
of susceptibility, that she was a woman also, a woman quivering with
emotion ..." And he continued, with a bitter laugh, "Who ran away next
day, never to see me again."

He was silent once more. Then he whispered:

"Clarisse... Clarisse... On the day when I am tired and disappointed and
weary of life, I will come to you down there, in your little Arab house
... in that little white house, Clarisse, where you are waiting for
me..."

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