"Well, I have; I was hungry that morning; very hungry. I know this doesn't excuse the thing--to you. But perhaps it may help to explain it." "I think I can understand--a little. But surely----" He stopped her with a quick little gesture. "I know what you are going to say: that I should have been willing to work, or even to beg, rather than steal. I was willing to work; I was not willing to beg. I know it is all wrong from your point of view; but I should be sorry to have you think that I did what _I_ believed to be wrong." "Surely you must know it is wrong?" "Pardon me, but I can't admit that. If I could, you would be relieved of what is doubtless a very painful duty. I should surrender myself at once." "But think of it; if you are right, every one else must be wrong!" "No; not quite every one. But that is a very large question, and we needn't go into it. I confess that my method was unconventional; a little more summary than that of the usurers and the strictly legal robbers, but quite as defensible. For they rob the poor and the helpless, while I merely dispossessed one rich corporation of a portion of its exactions from the many." "Then you are not sorry? I saw you yesterday afternoon and hoped you were." He laughed unpleasantly. "I was sorry, then, and I am now; for the same reason. I have lost the money." "Lost it?" she gasped, "How?" "I had hidden it, and I suppose some one else has found it. It is all right, so far as the ownership is concerned; but I am still self-centred enough to be chagrined about it." "But that is nothing!" she protested, with sharp regret in her voice; "now you can never return it!" "I didn't intend to," he assured her, gravely. "I did have some notion of redistributing it fairly among those who need it most; but that was all." "But you must have returned it in the end. You could never have been content to keep it." "Do you think so?" he rejoined. "I think I could have been quite content to keep it. But that is past; it is gone, and I couldn't return it if I wanted to." "No," she acquiesced; "and that makes it all the harder." "For you to do what you must do? But you mustn't think of that. I shouldn't have made restitution in any event. Let me tell you what I did. I had a weapon, as you have read. I tied it up with the money in a handkerchief. There was always the chance of their catching me, and I had made up my mind that my last free act would be to drop the bundle into the river. So you see you need not hesitate on that score." "Then you know what it is that I must do?" "Assuredly. I knew it yesterday, when I saw that you had recognized me. It was very merciful in you to reprieve me, even for a few hours; but you will pardon me if I say it was wrong?" "Wrong!" she burst out. "Is it generous to say that to me? Are you so indifferent yourself that you think every one else is indifferent, too?"