but will you come back?" said the old man.

"If Mademoiselle is not back by midday, you will give me a power of
attorney to attend to your property," said Philippe, looking at Flore.
"Take Vedie with you, to save appearances, mademoiselle. In future you
are to think of my uncle's honor."

Flore could get nothing out of Max. Desperate at having allowed himself,
before the eyes of the whole town, to be routed out of his shameless
position, Gilet was too proud to run away from Philippe. The
Rabouilleuse combated this objection, and proposed that they should fly
together to America; but Max, who did not want Flore without her money,
and yet did not wish the girl to see the bottom of his heart, insisted
on his intention of killing Philippe.

"We have committed a monstrous folly," he said. "We ought all three to
have gone to Paris and spent the winter there; but how could one guess,
from the mere sight of that fellow's big carcass, that things would turn
out as they have? The turn of events is enough to make one giddy! I took
the colonel for one of those fire-eaters who haven't two ideas in their
head; that was the blunder I made. As I didn't have the sense to double
like a hare in the beginning, I'll not be such a coward as to back down
before him. He has lowered me in the estimation of this town, and I
cannot get back what I have lost unless I kill him."

"Go to America with forty thousand francs. I'll find a way to get rid of
that scoundrel, and join you. It would be much wiser."

"What would people say of me?" he exclaimed. "No; I have buried nine
already. The fellow doesn't seem as if he knew much; he went from school
to the army, and there he was always fighting till 1815; then he went
to America, and I doubt if the brute ever set foot in a fencing-alley;
while I have no match with the sabre. The sabre is his arm; I shall seem
very generous in offering it to him,--for I mean, if possible, to let
him insult me,--and I can easily run him through. Unquestionably, it is
my wisest course. Don't be uneasy; we shall be masters of the field in a
couple of days."

That it was that a stupid point of honor had more influence over Max
than sound policy. When Flore got home she shut herself up to cry at
ease. During the whole of that day gossip ran wild in Issoudun, and the
duel between Philippe and Maxence was considered inevitable.

"Ah! Monsieur Hochon," said Mignonnet, who, accompanied by Carpentier,
met the old man on t