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50 "Suppose that you had not been caught—that I had not been such a fool as to insist on going upstairs after the pearls—what would you have done? Did you really care for me, or was it just the madness of the moment? Did you really intend to win me?" She fastened me with those wonderful eyes of hers.

"I meant to win you," I answered. "Nothing would have kept me from it. I was mad about your beauty, it's true; but there was something else besides" I stopped.

"What, Frank?" she asked, softly, and laid her hand on my shoulder, leaning toward me until her flushed face was almost against mine.

I gave a short laugh. "It sounds like a foolish thing for a professional thief to say, Léontine," I answered, "but it was because I felt the good in you."

Léontine's eyes opened wide.

"You are the first man to feel that," she answered.

"It is there," I answered; "tons of it. You have plenty of heart, my dear, and a great big generous soul. I don't know anything about you, but I know that you are not bad. Not by a long shot."

"I am a thief," she flashed back. "A thief on a bigger scale than you ever dreamed of, mon ami."

"And I am a thief no longer," I answered.

"But if you were?"

"If I were" I hesitated. The fascination of her was beginning to turn my head, as it had that night. "If I were—then all hell could never keep you from me," I cried, and reached for her with both arms.