“I offer you—”
“You offer me?” cried Lupin. “Then it isn’t true. You’re fooling me.”
“Reassure yourself,” said Guerchard coldly. “To you personally I offer nothing.”
“Then you are sincere,” said Lupin. “And putting me out of the question?”
“I offer you liberty.”
“Who for? For my concierge?” said Lupin.
“Don’t play the fool. You care only for a single person in the world. I hold you through her: Sonia Kritchnoff.”
Lupin burst into a ringing, irrepressible laugh:
“Why, you’re trying to blackmail me, you old sweep!” he cried.
“If you like to call it so,” said Guerchard coldly.