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THE MAKROPOULOS SECRET [Picking up one or two of the papers]

That’s something for you, Vitek. The daintiest papers. Don’t you want to sort them?

Don’t you dare to read them!

Oh, dear Madam, I beg of you not to move. Otherwise I should have to threaten you with bodily harm and injury. Paragraph ninety-one of the criminal code.

And you are a lawyer.

You see, I have acquired a taste for crime. I think that I always had a talent for it. Sometimes one doesn’t recognize one’s real abilities until old age. I want you to know I am a sort of Arsene Lupin.

Permit me, Mademoiselle Marty. Where are you going to sing next?

[He receives no answer]

Mon dieu, je suis desolé—desolé.

And did you read the criticisms about yourself?