house, and had expressed her displeasure at his not having the
civility to come and pay her a visit. "Oh, let him alone!" M. Stanislas
Kapp had hereupon exclaimed. "There are too many people in the box
already." And he had fixed his eyes with a demonstrative stare upon M.
de Bellegarde. Valentin had promptly retorted that if there were too
many people in the box it was easy for M. Kapp to diminish the number.
"I shall be most happy to open the door for YOU!" M. Kapp exclaimed. "I
shall be delighted to fling you into the pit!" Valentin had answered.
"Oh, do make a rumpus and get into the papers!" Miss Noemie had
gleefully ejaculated. "M. Kapp, turn him out; or, M. de Bellegarde,
pitch him into the pit, into the orchestra--anywhere! I don't care who
does which, so long as you make a scene." Valentin answered that they
would make no scene, but that the gentleman would be so good as to
step into the corridor with him. In the corridor, after a brief further
exchange of words, there had been an exchange of cards. M. Stanislas
Kapp was very stiff. He evidently meant to force his offence home.

"The man, no doubt, was insolent," Newman said; "but if you hadn't gone
back into the box the thing wouldn't have happened."

"Why, don't you see," Valentin replied, "that the event proves the
extreme propriety of my going back into the box? M. Kapp wished to
provoke me; he was awaiting his chance. In such a case--that is, when
he has been, so to speak, notified--a man must be on hand to receive the
provocation. My not returning would simply have been tantamount to
my saying to M. Stanislas Kapp, 'Oh, if you are going to be
disagreeable'"--

"'You must manage it by yourself; damned if I'll help you!' That would
have been a thoroughly sensible thing to say. The only attraction for
you seems to have been the prospect of M. Kapp's impertinence," Newman
went on. "You told me you were not going back for that girl."

"Oh, don't mention that girl any more," murmured Valentin. "She's a
bore."

"With all my heart. But if that is the way you feel about her, why
couldn't you let her alone?"

Valentin shook his head with a fine smile. "I don't think you quite
understand, and I don't believe I can make you. She understood the
situation; she knew what was in the air; she was watching us."

"A cat may look at a king! What difference does that make?"

"Why, a man can't back down before a woman."

"I don't call her a woman. You said yourself sh