Now even you, Monsieur Valmont (I can
see you are the most generous of men, with a lively sympathy found to
perfection only in France), even you must suffer a pang of regret when
you lay a thief by the heels who has done his task deftly.'
'I fear, Mr. Dacre, you credit me with a magnanimity to which I dare
not lay claim. The criminal is a danger to society.'
'True, true, you are in the right, Monsieur Valmont Still, admit there
are cases that would touch you tenderly. For example, a man,
ordinarily honest; a great need; a sudden opportunity. He takes that
of which another has abundance, and he, nothing. What then, Monsieur
Valmont? Is the man to be sent to perdition for a momentary weakness?'
His words astonished me. Was I on the verge of hearing a confession?
It almost amounted to that already.
'Mr. Dacre,' I said, 'I cannot enter into the subtleties you pursue. My
duty is to find the criminal.'
'Again I say you are in the right, Monsieur Valmont, and I am
enchanted to find so sensible a head on French shoulders. Although you
are a more recent arrival, if I may say so, than myself, you
nevertheless already give utterance to sentiments which do honour to
England. It is your duty to hunt down the criminal.
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