ou had never seen each other till last night, at the house of your
friend. The case is simply this:--Lafontaine, who is one of the finest
fellows breathing, has been for some time deeply smitten by the various
charms of your host's very pretty daughter, and, so far as I comprehend,
the lady has acknowledged his merits. But your arrival here has a good
deal deranged the matter. He conceives your attentions to his fair one
to be of so marked a nature, that it is impossible for him to overlook
them."

I laughed, and answered,

"Sir, you may make your friend quite at his ease on the subject, for I
have not known her existence till within these twenty-four hours."

"You danced with her half the evening--you sat beside her at supper. She
listened to you with evident attention--of this last I myself was
witness; and the report in the neighbourhood is, that you have come to
this place by an express arrangement with her father," gravely retorted
the guardsman.

All this exactness of requisition appeared to me to be going rather too
far; and I exhibited my feeling on the subject, in the tone in which I
replied, that I had stated every thing that was necessary for the
satisfaction of a "man of sense, but that I had neither the faculty nor
the inclination to indulge the captiousness of any man."

His colour mounted, and I seemed as if I was likely to have a couple of
heroes on my hands. But he compressed his lip, evidently strangled a
chivalric speech, and, after a pause to recover his calmness, said--

"Sir, I have not come here to decide punctilios on either side. I
heartily wish that this affair had not occurred, or could be reconciled;
my countrymen here, I know, stand on a delicate footing, and I am
perfectly aware of the character that will be fastened on them by the
occurrence of such rencontres. Can you suggest any means by which this
difference may be settled at once?"

"None in the world, sir," was my answer. "I have told you the fact, that
I have no pretension whatever to the lady--that I am wholly unacquainted
even with the person of your friend--that the idea of intentional injury
on my part, therefore, is ridiculous; and let me add, for the benefit of
your friend, that to expect an apology for imaginary injuries, would be
the most ridiculous part of the entire transaction."

"What, then, am I to do?" asked the gallant captain, evidently
perplexed. "I really wish that the affair could be got over without
_frac