When I had given Moktir all the time he needed to rob me properly, I turned toward him again and spoke to him as if nothing had happened. Marceline was very fond of this child; yet it was not, I believe, the fear of giving her pain which made me, when I saw her next, instead of denouncing Moktir, devise some story or other to account for the disappearance of the scissors. From that day on, Moktir became my favorite.
