own esteem, if I sit down quietly under this injury."

"I do not see that," Desmond said. "If you abstain from
challenging de Tulle, it is from no fear of the consequences, but
it is, as I have shown you, because, whatever the issue of the
contest, it would be bad both for you and her. If you were killed,
her life would be spoilt. If you killed him, you might languish
for years in one of the royal prisons. The king prides himself on
his justice, and, by all accounts, rightly so; and I am sure that
he would feel the deepest resentment, were you or anyone to show,
by your actions, that you considered he has favoured the
transgressor."

"You are right, Desmond; and, at any rate for the present, I will
put my intention aside; but should he ever cross my path,
assuredly I will have a reckoning with him.

"But how is it that you, who are at least eight years younger than
I am, should argue as an old counsellor rather than a young
ensign?"

"I suppose, in the first place, it is from my bringing up. I lived
with and was educated by a good priest, one not wanting in
manliness and energy, but who often deplored the system of
duelling, which is as strong with us as it is here, and denounced
it as a relic of barbarism, and, at any rate, never to be put in
use on account of a heated quarrel over wine, but only if some
deadly injury had been inflicted, and even then better left alone.
Of course, as an officer in one of His Majesty's regiments, I
should be obliged to conform to the general usage; for, did I
decline, I should be regarded as having brought dishonour on the
corps. But my case differs altogether from yours.

"In the next place, knowing you were coming to Versailles, I
thought over what course you would be likely to pursue, and
considered it was probable you would lose no time in challenging
de Tulle. I have thought the matter over, in every light, and made
up my mind to endeavour to dissuade you from doing so, if the
opportunity offered.

"So you see," he added with a smile, "I had prepared my array of
arguments against it; and I cannot but think that the opinion of
one interested, but not vitally so, on a point, is rather to be
taken than that of a person smarting under an injury."

"And now, to turn to other matters. In three days we start for the
south. The baron accompanied me here, and went to see your
colonel, while I came to your quarters. His object was to ask him
to grant you a month's leave of absenc