settlement of their difference feasible.

[Footnote 58: _i. e._, Schoolfox, a term of contempt.]

"'Aronffy objected at first: "At once or never!" but he had finally to
accept the decision of the seconds: and we drew lots.

"'Aronffy's name came out.'"

... Lorand was staring at the narrator with fixed eyes, and had no
feeling for the world outside, as he listened in rapt awe to this story
of the past.

"'The name that was drawn out we gave to the successful party, who had
the right to send this card, after sixteen years were passed, to his
adversary, in order if the latter deferred the fulfilment of his
obligation, to remind him thereof.

"'Then we parted company, you went home and I thought we should forget
the matter as many others have done.

"'But I was deceived. To this, the hour of my death, it has always
remained in my memory, has always agonized and persecuted me. I inquired
of my acquaintances in Hungary about the two adversaries, and all I
learned only increased my anguish. Aronffy was a proud and earnest man.
It is surely stupidity for a man to kill himself, when he is happy and
faring well: yet a proud man would far rather the worms gnawed his body
than his soul, and could not endure the idea of giving up to a man, whom
yesterday he had the right to despise, of his own accord, that right of
contempt. He can die, but he cannot be disgraced. He is a fool for his
pains: but it is consistent.'"

Lorand was shuddering all over.

"'I am in my death-struggles,' continued Stoppelfeld's letter: 'I know
the day, the hour in which I shall end all; but that thought does not
calm me so much, seeing that I cannot go myself and seek that man, who
holds Aronffy in his hands, to tell him: "Sir, twelve years have passed.
Your opponent has suffered twelve years already because of a terrible
obligation: for him every pleasure of life has been embittered, before
him the future eternity has been overclouded; be contented with that
sacrifice, and do not ask for the greatest too. Give back one man to his
family, to his country, and to God--" But I cannot go. I must sit here
motionless and count the beats of my pulse, and reckon how many remain
till the last.

"'And that is why I came to you: you know both, and were a good friend
to one: go, speak, and act. Perhaps I am a ridiculous fool: I am afraid
of my own shadow; but it agonizes and horrifies me; it will not let me
die. Take this inheritance from me. Let me rest pe