turns, according to the season, to Monte Carlo for
the 'Tir aux Pigeons', to Deauville for the race week, to Aix-les-Bains
for the baccarat season; that Paris which has its own customs, its
own language, its own history, even its own cosmopolitanism, for it
exercises over certain minds, throughout Europe, so despotic a rule that
Cibo, for example, and his friend Pietrapertoso never opened a French
journal that was not Parisian.

They sought the short paragraphs in which were related, in detail,
the doings of the demi-monde, the last supper given by some well-known
viveur, the details of some large party in such and such a fashionable
club, the result of a shooting match, or of a fencing match between
celebrated fencers! There were between them subjects of conversation of
which they never wearied; to know if spirituelle Gladys Harvey was more
elegant than Leona d'Astri, if Machault made "counters" as rapid as
those of General Garnier, if little Lautrec would adhere or would not
adhere to the game he was playing. Imprisoned in Rome by the scantiness
of their means, and also by the wishes, the one of his uncle, the other
of his grandfather, whose heirs they were, their entire year was summed
up in the months which they spent at Nice in the winter, and in the trip
they took to Paris at the time of the Grand Prix for six weeks. Jealous
one of the other, with the most comical rivalry, of the least occurrence
at the 'Cercle des Champs-Elysees' or of the Rue Royale in the Eternal
City, they affected, in the presence of their colleagues of la chasse,
the impassive manner of augurs when the telegraph brought them the
news of some Parisian scandal. That inoffensive mania which had made
of stout, ruddy Cibo, and of thin, pale Pietrapertoso two delightful
studies for Dorsenne during his Roman winter, made of them terrible
proxies in the service of Gorka's vengeance.

With what joy and what gravity they accepted that mission all those who
have studied swordsmen will understand after this simple sketch, and
with what promptness they presented themselves to confer at nine o'clock
in the morning with their client's adversary! In short, at half-past
twelve the duel was arranged in its slightest detail. The energy
employed by Montfanon had only ended in somewhat tempering the
conditions--four balls to be exchanged at twenty-five paces at the
word of command. The duel was fixed for the following morning, in the
inclosure which Cibo owned