"
"Still, in the end--?"
"Oh, no, madame. He was never caught. He simply ceased to thieve."
"I wonder why..."
"I believe because he fell in love and considered good faith with the
object of his affections incompatible with a career of crime."
"So he gave up crime. How romantic! And the woman: did she appreciate
the sacrifice?"
"While she lived, yes, madame. Or so they say. Unfortunately, she
died."
"And then--?"
"So far as is known the converted enemy to Society did not backslide;
the Lone Wolf never prowled again."
"An extraordinary story."
"But is not every story that has to do with the workings of the human
soul? What one of us has not buried in him a story quite as strange?
Even you--"
"Monsieur deceives himself. I am simply--what you see."
"But what I see is not simple, but complex and intriguing beyond
expression. A woman of your sort walling herself up in a wilderness,
renouncing the world, renouncing life itself in its very heyday--!"
"But hardly that, monsieur."
"Then I am stupid..."
"I will explain." The sleekly coiffured brown head bent low over hands
that played absently with their jewels.
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