“In truth I was overjoyed. Clarice free, everything appeared to me to be accomplished. I lit a cigarette, and as Josephine planted herself before me to recall our bargain, I had the bad manners to blow a cloud of smoke right into her face.” “‘Bounder!’” she muttered. “The epithet with which I retorted was really disgraceful. My excuse is that my tone was more roguish than coarse. And then--and then--have I any need of excuses? Have I any need to analyze the violent and contradictory feelings with which that woman inspired me? I do not pride myself on my psychology where she was concerned, or of having behaved like a gentleman to her. I loved her and at the same time detested her furiously. And after her attack on Clarice my disgust and contempt had become boundless. I no longer saw even the admirable mask of her beauty, but only that which lay beneath it; and it was a kind of carnivorous beast which suddenly appeared to me as I flung that abominable insult at her in the middle of my pirouette.” * * * * * Arsène Lupin could laugh _afterwards_. Nevertheless it was a dangerous moment, and there is no doubt that for two pins either Josephine or Leonard would have blown his brains out. She muttered through her closed teeth: “Oh, how I do hate you!” “Not more than I hate you,” he sneered. “Bear in mind that Josephine Balsamo has not quite finished with that Clarice of yours,” she retorted in a tone of sinister threatening. “Nor has Ralph d’Andresy finished with her,” he said quickly. “Scoundrel!” she muttered. “You deserve----” “A bullet through my head,” he said, laughing. “It’s out of the question.” “Don’t you defy me too far, Ralph!” “It’s out of the question, I tell you,” he repeated. “I am literally sacred. I am the gentleman who stands for a thousand millions. Destroy me and the thousand millions slip through your fingers, O daughter of Cagliostro! Every cell in my brain corresponds to a precious stone. A little bullet hole in it and you will call in vain on the spirit of your father! Not a sou for little Josine! I repeat, my darling, that I am taboo, as they say in Polynesia. Taboo from head to foot! Go down on your knees and kiss my hand. That’s the best thing you can possibly do.” He opened the window which looked over the enclosure, took a deep breath, and said: “This place is perfectly suffocating. Leonard has a decidedly musty smell. Do you make a point of your executioner’s keeping his hand on that revolver in his pocket?” She stamped her foot and exclaimed: “Enough of this fooling! You laid down your conditions; you know mine.” “Your money or your life!” “Speak, and speak at once!” “What a hurry you’re in!” he said in a mocking voice. “In the first place I fixed a delay of twenty minutes, to be quite sure that Clarice should be out of reach of your claws; and it is not nearly twenty minutes since she went. Besides----” “Besides what?”