I explained to her.
“And the only thing I’ve taken,” I went on, “is the food I ate and the wine I drank; but if you knew how much I needed them—”
“Were you hungry?”
“I hadn’t eaten anything for two days, and very little for two days before that.”
“Then you’re not—you’re not one of those gentleman burglars who do this sort of thing out of bravado?”
“As we see in novels or plays. I don’t think you’ll find many of them about. I’m a burglar,” I pursued, “or I—I meant to be one—but I’m not a gentleman.”
“You speak like a gentleman.”
“Unfortunately, a gentleman is not made by speech. A gentleman could never be in the predicament in which you’ve caught me.”
“Well, then, you were a gentleman once.”
“My father was a gentleman—and is.”