ubuis replied:

"Whenever you like. I'm quite ready."

The German said:

"Here is the town of Strasbourg. I'll get two officers to be my
seconds, and there will be time before the train leaves the station."

M. Dubuis, who was puffing as much as the engine, said to the
Englishmen:

"Will you be my seconds?" They both answered together:

"Ah! yes."

And the train stopped.

In a minute, the Prussian had found two comrades who carried pistols,
and they made their way towards the ramparts.

The Englishmen were continually looking at their watches, shuffling
their feet, and hurrying on with the preparations, uneasy lest they
should be too late for the train.

M. Dubuis had never fired a pistol in his life.

They made him stand twenty paces away from his enemy. He was asked:

"Are you ready?"

While he was answering: "Yes, monsieur," he noticed that one of the
Englishmen had opened his umbrella in order to keep off the rays of
the sun.

A voice gave the word of command:

"Fire!"

M. Dubuis fired at random without minding what he was doing, and he
was amazed to see the Prussian staggering in front of him, lifting up
his arms, and immediately afterwards, falling straight on his face. He
had killed the officer.

One of the Englishmen ejaculated: "Ah!" quivering with delight,
satisfied curiosity, and joyous impatience. The other, who still kept
the watch in his hand, seized M. Dubuis's arm, and hurried him in
double-quick time towards the station, his fellow-countryman counting
their steps, with his arms pressed close to his sides--"One! two! one!
two!"

And all three marching abreast they rapidly made their way to the
station like three grotesque figures in a comic newspaper.

The train was on the point of starting. They sprang into their
carriage. Then, the Englishmen, taking off their traveling-caps, waved
them three times over their heads, exclaiming:

"Hip! hip! hip! hurrah!"

Then gravely, one after the other, they stretched out the right hand
to M. Dubuis, and they went back and sat in their own corner.

THE LOVE OF LONG AGO

The old-fashioned chateau was built on a wooded height. Tall trees
surrounded it with dark greenery; and the vast park extended its
vistas here over a deep forest and there over an open plain. Some
little distance from the front of the mansion stood a huge stone basin
in which marble nymphs were bathing. Other basins arranged in order
succeeded each other down