"Let's clear out," said Lupin. "The chalet is built of wood, it will all flare up like a match. And, by the time they come from the village, break down the gates and run to this end of the park, it will be too late. They will find ashes, the remains of two charred corpses and, close at hand, my farewell letter in a bottle. . . . Good-bye, Lupin! Bury me simply, good people, without superfluous state . . . a poor man's funeral . . . No flowers, no wreaths. . . . Just a humble cross and a plain epitaph; 'Here lies Arsène Lupin, adventurer.'" He made for the park wall, climbed over it, and turning round, saw the flames soaring up to the sky. . . . * * * * * He wandered back toward Paris on foot, bowed down by destiny, with despair in his heart. And the peasants were amazed at the sight of this traveller who paid with bank-notes for his fifteen-penny meals. Three foot-pads attacked him one evening in the forest. He defended himself with his stick and left them lying for dead. . . . He spent a week at an inn. He did not know where to go. . . . What was he to do? What was there for him to cling to? He was tired of life. He did not want to live. . . . * * * * * "Is that you?" Mme. Ernemont stood in her little sitting-room in the villa at Garches, trembling, scared and livid, staring at the apparition that faced her. Lupin! . . . It was Lupin. "You!" she said. "You! . . . But the papers said . . ." He smiled sadly: "Yes, I am dead." "Well, then . . . well, then . . ." she said, naïvely. "You mean that, if I am dead, I have no business here. Believe me, I have serious reasons, Victoire." "How you have changed!" she said, in a voice full of pity. "A few little disappointments. . . . However, that's over. . . . Tell me, is Geneviève in?" She flew at him, in a sudden rage: "You leave her alone, do you hear? Geneviève? You want to see Geneviève, to take her back? Ah, this time I shall not let her out of my sight! She came back tired, white as a sheet, nervous; and the color has hardly yet returned to her cheeks. You shall leave her alone, I swear you shall." He pressed his hand hard on the old woman's shoulder: "I _will_--do you understand?--I _will_ speak to her." "No." "I mean to speak to her." "No." He pushed her about. She drew herself up and, crossing her arms: