The young woman replied, half laughing, half angry: "It is very annoying; that individual is spoiling my ice."
The husband shrugged his shoulders, replying:
"Pshaw! Pay no attention to him. If we were to notice all the insolent people we meet, there would be no end to it."
But the Viscount arose brusquely. He could not allow this unknown man to spoil an ice he had offered. It was to him that the injury was addressed, as it was through him and for him that his friends had entered this _cafe_. The affair, then, concerned him only. He advanced toward the man and said to him:
"You have, sir, a manner of looking at these ladies that is not to be tolerated. I beg to ask you to cease this attention."
The other replied: "So you command me to keep the peace, do you?"
With set teeth, the Viscount answered: "Take care, sir, or you will force me to forget myself!"
The gentleman replied with a single word, an obscene word which resounded from one end of the _cafe_ to the other, and made each guest start with a sudden movement as if they were all on springs. Those that were in front turned around; all the others raised their heads; three waiters turned about on their heels as if on pivots; the two ladies at the counter bounded forward, then entirely turned their backs upon the scene, as if they had been two automatons obeying the same manipulation.
There was a great silence. Then, suddenly, a sharp noise rent the air.
The Viscount had struck his adversary. Everybody got up to interpose.
Cards were exchanged.
After the Viscount had returned home, he walked up and down his room at a lively pace for some minutes. He was too much agitated to reflect upon anything. One idea only hovered over his mind: "a duel"; and yet this idea awoke in him as yet, no emotion whatever. He had done what he ought to do; he had shown himself what he ought to be. People would talk of it, approve of it, and congratulate him. He said aloud, in a high voice, as one speaks when he is much troubled in thought:
"What a beast that man is."
Then he sat down and began to reflect. He would have to find some seconds in the morning. Whom should he choose? He thought over the people of his acquaintance who were the most celebrated and in the best positions. He took finally, Marquis de la Tour-Noire and Colonel Bourdin, a great lord and a soldier who was very strong. Their names would carry in the journals. He perceived that he was thirsty and he drank, one after the other, three gla.s.ses of water; then he began to walk again. He felt himself full of energy. By showing himself hot-brained, resolute in all things, by exacting rigorous, dangerous conditions, and by claiming a serious duel, a very serious one, his adversary would doubtless withdraw and make some excuses.
He took up the card which he had drawn from his pocket and thrown upon the table and re-read it as he had in the _cafe,_ by a glance of the eye, and again in the cab, on returning home, by the light of a gas jet: "George Lamil, 51 Moncey street." That was all.
He examined these a.s.sembled letters which appeared so mysterious to him, his senses all confused: George Lamil? Who was this man? What had he done? Why had he looked at that woman in such a way? Was it not revolting that a stranger, an unknown should come to trouble his life thus, at a blow, because he had been pleased to fix his insolent gaze upon a woman? And the Viscount repeated again, in a loud voice:
"What a brute."
Then he remained motionless, standing, thinking, his look ever fixed upon the card. A certain anger against this piece of paper was awakened in him, a hateful anger which was mingled with a strange sentiment of malice. It was stupid, this whole story! He took a penknife which lay open at his hand, and p.r.i.c.ked the card through the middle of-the printed name, as if he were using a poignard upon some one.
So he must fight! Should he choose the sword or pistol, for he considered himself the insulted one. With the sword he risked less; but with the pistol, there was a chance of his adversary withdrawing. It is rarely that a duel with the sword is mortal, a reciprocal prudence hindering the combatants from keeping near enough to each other for the point to strike very deep; with the pistol he risked his life very seriously; but he could also meet the affair with all the honors of the situation and without arriving at a meeting. He said aloud:
"It is necessary to be firm. He will be afraid."
The sound of his own voice made him tremble and he began to look about him. He felt very nervous. He drank still another gla.s.s of water, then commenced to undress, preparatory to retiring.
When he was ready, he put out his light and closed his eyes. Then he thought:
"I have all day to-morrow to busy myself with my affairs. I must sleep first, in order to be calm."
He was very warm under the clothes, but he could not succeed in falling asleep. He turned and turned again, remained for five minutes upon his back, then placed himself upon his left side, then rolled over to the right.
He was still thirsty. He got up and drank. Then a kind of disquiet seized him:
"Can it be that I am afraid?" said he.
Why should his heart begin to beat so foolishly at each of the customary noises about his room?--when the clock was going to strike and the spring made that little grinding noise as it raised itself to make the turn? And he found it was necessary for him to open his mouth in order to breathe for some seconds following this start, so great was his feeling of oppression. He began to reason with himself upon the possibilities of the thing:
"What have I to fear?"
No, certainly, he should not fear, since he was resolved to follow it out to the end and since he had fully made up his mind to fight without a qualm. But he felt himself so profoundly troubled that he asked himself:
"Can it be that I am afraid in spite of myself?"
And this doubt invaded him, this disquiet, this fear; if a force more powerful than his will, dominating, irresistible, should conquer him, what would happen to him? Yes, what would happen? Certainly he could walk upon the earth, if he wished to go there. But if he should tremble?
And if he should lose consciousness? And he thought of his situation, of his reputation, of his name.
And a singular desire took possession of him to get up and look at himself in the gla.s.s. He relighted his candle. When he perceived his face reflected in the polished gla.s.s, he scarcely knew himself, and it seemed to him that he had never seen himself before. His eyes appeared enormous; he was pale, certainly; he was pale, very pale.
He remained standing there before the mirror. He put out his tongue as if to examine the state of his health, and suddenly this thought entered his brain after the fashion of a bullet:
"After to-morrow at this time, I shall perhaps be dead."
And his heart began to beat furiously.
"After to-morrow at this time, I shall perhaps be dead. This person opposite me, this being I have so often seen in this gla.s.s, will be no more. How can it be! I am here, I see myself, I feel that I am alive, and in twenty-four hours I shall be stretched upon that bed, dead, my eyes closed, cold, inanimate, departed."
He turned around to the bed and distinctly saw himself stretched on his back in the same clothes he had worn on going out. In his face were the lines of death, and a rigidity in the hands that would never stir again.
Then a fear of his bed came over him, and in order to see it no more he pa.s.sed into his smoking-room. Mechanically he took a cigar, lighted it, and began to walk about. He was cold. He went toward the bell to waken his valet; but he stopped with his hand on the cord:
"This man would perceive at once that I am afraid."
He did not ring, but made a fire. His hands trembled a little from a nervous shiver when they came in contact with any object. His mind wandered; his thoughts from trouble became frightened, hasty, and sorrowful; an intoxication seemed to invade his mind as if he were drunk. And without ceasing he asked:
"What am I going to do? What is going to become of me?"
His whole body was vibrating, traversed by a jerking and a trembling; he got up and approached the window, opening the curtains.
The day had dawned, a summer day. A rose-colored sky made the city rosy on roof and wall. A great fall of spread out light, like a caress from the rising sun, enveloped the waking world; and, with this light, a gay, rapid, brutal hope invaded the heart of the Viscount! He was a fool to allow himself to be thus cast down by fear, even before anything was decided, before his witnesses had seen those of this George Lamil, before he yet knew whether he were going to fight a duel.
He made his toilette, dressed himself, and walked out with firm step.
He repeated constantly, in walking: "It will be necessary for me to be energetic, very energetic. I must prove that I am not afraid."
His witnesses, the Marquis and the Colonel, placed themselves at his disposal and, after having shaken hands with him energetically, discussed the conditions. The Colonel asked:
"Do you wish it to be a serious duel?"
The Viscount responded: "Very serious."
The Marquis continued: "Will you use a pistol?"
"Yes."
"We leave you free to regulate the rest."