nd finally pinned him up against the wall.

"The deuce! you are strong," said Gaudissart, out of breath.

"Monsieur Vernier is stronger than I am."

"The devil! Damn it, I shall fight with pistols."

"I advise you to do so; because, if you take large holster pistols and
load them up to their muzzles, you can't risk anything. They are _sure_
to fire wide of the mark, and both parties can retire from the field
with honor. Let me manage all that. Hein! 'sapristi,' two brave men
would be arrant fools to kill each other for a joke."

"Are you sure the pistols will carry _wide enough_? I should be sorry to
kill the man, after all," said Gaudissart.

"Sleep in peace," answered Mitouflet, departing.

The next morning the two adversaries, more or less pale, met beside the
bridge of La Cise. The brave Vernier came near shooting a cow which was
peaceably feeding by the roadside.

"Ah, you fired in the air!" cried Gaudissart.

At these words the enemies embraced.

"Monsieur," said the traveller, "your joke was rather rough, but it was
a good one for all that. I am sorry I apostrophized you: I was excited.
I regard you as a man of honor."

"Monsieur, we take twenty subscriptions to the 'Children's Journal,'"
replied the dyer, still pale.

"That being so," said Gaudissart, "why shouldn't we all breakfast
together? Men who fight are always the ones to come to a good
understanding."

"Monsieur Mitouflet," said Gaudissart on his return to the inn, "of
course you have got a sheriff's officer here?"

"What for?"

"I want to send a summons to my good friend Margaritis to deliver the
two casks of wine."

"But he has not got them," said Vernier.

"No matter for that; the affair can be arranged by the payment of an
indemnity. I won't have it said that Vouvray outwitted the illustrious
Gaudissart."

Madame Margaritis, alarmed at the prospect of a suit in which the
plaintiff would certainly win his case, brought thirty francs to the
placable traveller, who thereupon considered himself quits with the
happiest region of sunny France,--a region which is also, we must add,
the most recalcitrant to new and progressive ideas.

On returning from his trip through the southern departments, the
illustrious Gaudissart occupied the coupe of a diligence, where he met
a young man to whom, as they journeyed between Angouleme and Paris, he
deigned to explain the enigmas of life, taking him, apparently, for an
infant.

As they passed