I wasn't from the city of Saint Malo I'd only just arrived after a long carriage ride from Paris We were on vacation and staying there had been my mother's idea I was excited Until then I'd only seen the sea a few times when I'd gone with Papa to Calais where he took the ship to England I'd seen it once in Sanremo in Italy too but my parents said I was too young to remember that But I did remember it I really did So the idea of spending all of the summer of 1870 at a seaside resort was wonderful And my father had even said that we could stay longer if we wanted to So even though I eventually had to go back to school this was going to be a nice and long summer And it turned out to be the summer that changed my whole life The trip to Saint Malo had been terrible The problem wasn't the carriage which my father had spent a lot of money to hire as he always did when he was looking after my mother and me It was a carriage fit for a king with four black horses a coachman with a top hat and seats covered with silk cushions Even still the six hour trip under the watchful gaze of Mama and Mr Nelson made it seem like an eternity Mr Horatio Nelson was our butler He was very tall very quiet and seemed very concerned about every little thing I did The rest of the servants had left the week before to prepare our summer house for us Mr Nelson was the only one who'd stayed back And he never took his eyes off me He always seemed to be about to say to me Perhaps it is not appropriate for a lady to behave that way
Miss Irene Perhaps it is not appropriate Miss Irene I thought Mr Nelson always said that whenever I was doing anything fun And that was probably why at the first chance I got I escaped from our summer house and climbed up the winding path to the top of the city walls Our vacation home had two floors Although it was small it was very pretty with a big skylight in the roof and bigger bow windows which I used to call boat windows when I was little There was a trellis covered in ivy that crept all over the walls When we first got there my mother said Heavens That ivy will be just full of animals It took a few days before I realized what she'd meant I'd left my bedroom window open one night and the next morning Mr Nelson found a snake slithering across the floor Perhaps it is not appropriate Miss Irene to leave the window open at night Mr Nelson had said sternly entering my room He'd then taken the poker from the fireplace and began to walk toward the snake Please don't kill it Mr Nelson I'd cried Mr Nelson then sighed put the poker down and grabbed the snake in his hands Then I shall politely escort our little guest to the garden Mr Nelson was a grumpy man but he always knew how to make me laugh
As soon as he'd left the room with my so called guest the wardrobe door popped open and a boy with a skinny face popped out He was my other great friend during that long summer His name was Arsène Lupin the famous gentleman thief But back then he hadn't yet begun his dazzling criminal career And he was hardly a gentleman considering he was only a couple of years older than I was and even younger than Sherlock Holmes Now you know the names of my friends If you've guessed that a lot happened that summer you'd be right But it's best if I start at the beginning
