"For me to personate you."
"O monsieur!" cried Clara, a flash of hope leaping suddenly into her eyes.
"Karovsky, are you mad?"
"Pardon; I think not; but one can never be quite sure. Listen! These men who are coming to arrest you are strangers to you, or rather, you are a stranger to them; they have never set eyes on you before. I will answer to your name; I will go with them; and before they have time to discover their mistake, you will be far away."
"And the consequences to yourself?"
"A few hours' detention--nothing more. Your English police know me not." Then he added with a shrug: "At St. Petersburg or Berlin, ma foi, it might be somewhat different."
"Karovsky, your offer is a noble one, and the risk to yourself might be greater than you seem to think. In any case, I cannot accept it."
"Gerald, for my sake!" implored his wife.
"As I said before, I am tired of this life of perpetual hide-and-seek. Let it end; I am ready to face the worst."
"No, no! Would you court a felon's doom, you whose innocence will one day be proved to the world?"