“Now,” replied Lupin, “I am going to take a rest, enjoy the best of food and drink and gradually recover my former healthy condition. It is all very well to become Baudru or some other person, on occasion, and to change your personality as you do your shirt, but you soon grow weary of the change. I feel exactly as I imagine the man who lost his shadow must have felt, and I shall be glad to be Arsène Lupin once more.”

He walked to and fro for a few minutes, then, stopping in front of Ganimard, he said:

“You have nothing more to say, I suppose?”

“Yes. I should like to know if you intend to reveal the true state of facts connected with your escape. The mistake that I made⁠—”