r mouth, or if you expose me, by any show of your own
poltroonery, to the ribald insolence of these Frenchmen, by Heaven! I
'll hold your hand in my own when I fire at Count Trouville."

"And I may be mu-mu-murdered!" screamed Purvis. "An innocent man's
bl-blood shed, all for nothing!"

"Bluebeard treated his wives to the same penalty for the same crime,
Master Purvis. And now listen to me, sir, and mark well my words. With
the causes which have led to this affair you have no concern whatever;
your only business here is in the capacity of my second. Be present when
the pistols are loaded; stand by as they step the ground; and, if you
can do no more, try, at least, to look as if you were not going to be
shot at." Neither the counsel nor the tone it was delivered in were very
reassuring; and Purvis went along with his head down and his hands in
his pockets, reflecting on all the "accidents by firearms" he had read
of in the newspapers, together with the more terrible paragraphs about
fatal duels, and criminal proceedings against all concerned in them.

The Frenchmen were seated in the garden, at a table, and smoking their
cigars, as Norwood came up, and, in a few words, explained that a
countryman of his own, whom he had met by chance, would undertake the
duties of his friend.

"I have only to say, gentlemen," he added, "that he has never even
witnessed an affair of this kind; and I have but to address myself to
the loyal good faith of Frenchmen to supply any deficiencies in his
knowledge. Mr. Purvis, Messieurs."

The old Colonel, having courteously saluted him, took him to a short
distance aside, and spoke eagerly for a few minutes; while Norwood,
burning with anxiety and uneasiness, tried to smoke his cigar with every
semblance of unconcern.

"I 'm sure, if you think so," cried Scroope, aloud, "I'm not the m-man
to gainsay the opinion. A miss is as g-g-good as a m-mile; and as he did
n't strike him--"

"Tonnerre de Dieu! sir--strike him!" screamed the old soldier. "Did you
say strike him?"

"No, I didn't--I couldn't have meant that," broke in Purvis. "I meant to
remark that, as there was no mischief done--"

"And who will venture to say that, sir?" interposed the other. "Is it
nothing that a Frenchman should have been menaced?"

"That's a gr-great deal,----a tremendous deal. It's as much as beating
another man; I know that," muttered poor Purvis, deprecatingly.

"Is this a sneer, sir?" asked the Colonel, dr