one I breathed more freely; and feeling thankful that I had been
able to keep my temper, took the episode to be at an end.

But in this I was mistaken, as I found when I returned to the room in
which we had supped, my intention being to go through it to the stables.
I had not taken two paces across the floor before I found my road
blocked by the Italian, and read alike in his eyes and in the faces
of the company--of whom many hastened to climb the tables to see what
passed--that the meeting was premeditated. The man's face was flushed
with wine; proud of his many victories, he eyed me with a boastful
contempt my patience had perhaps given him the right to feel.

'Ha! well met, sir,' he said, sweeping the floor with his cap in an
exaggeration of respect, 'now, perhaps, your high-mightiness will
condescend to unmask? The table is no longer between us, nor are your
fair friends here to protect their CHER AMI!'

'If I still refuse, sir,' I said civilly, wavering between anger and
prudence, and hoping still to avoid a quarrel which might endanger
us all, 'be good enough to attribute it to private motives, and to no
desire to disoblige you.'

'No, I do not think you wish to disoblige me,' he answered, laughing
scornfully--and a dozen voices echoed the gibe. 'But for your private
motives, the devil take them! Is that plain enough, sir?'

'It is plain enough to show me that you are an ill-bred man!' I
answered, choler getting the better of me. 'Let me pass, sir.'

'Unmask!' he retorted, moving so as still to detain me, 'or shall I call
in the grooms to perform the office for you?'

Seeing at last that all my attempts to evade the man only fed his
vanity, and encouraged him to further excesses, and that the motley
crowd, who filled the room and already formed a circle round us, had
made up their minds to see sport, I would no longer balk them; I could
no longer do it, indeed, with honour. I looked round, therefore, for
someone whom I might enlist as my second, but I saw no one with whom
I had the least acquaintance. The room was lined from table to ceiling
with mocking faces and scornful eyes all turned to me.

My opponent saw the look, and misread it; being much accustomed, I
imagine, to a one-sided battle. He laughed contemptuously. 'No, my
friend, there is no way out of it,' he said. 'Let me see your pretty
face, or fight.'

'So be it,' I said quietly. 'If I have no other choice, I will fight.'

'In your mask?' he