"Your Majesty," said he, "will not do me the injustice to suppose that I am not in everything and most readily at your command. But I would beg the honour of representing your Majesty in this affair."
"Impossible!" said I briefly.
"Consider, sire. To fight you is ruin to M. Wetter."
"As regards that, would not M. Wetter in his turn reflect too late?" I asked stiffly.
Vohrenlorf looked up with a hopeless dazed expression. Varvilliers was at a loss. Wetter"s figure and face were still unmoved. A sudden idea came into my head.
"There is no need for M. Wetter to be ruined," said I. "Whatever the result may be it shall seem an accident."
Wetter looked up with a quick jerk of his head. I glanced at the clock.
"In four hours it will be light," I said. "Let us meet at six in the Garden Pavilion at the Palace. Varvilliers, since you desire to a.s.sist us, I have no doubt M. Wetter will accept your services. It will be well to have no more present than necessary. The Pavilion, gentlemen, I need hardly remind you, is fitted up for revolver practice. Well, there are targets at each end. It will be unfortunate, but not strange, if one of us steps carelessly into the line of fire."
They understood my idea. But Varvilliers had an objection.
"What if both of you?" he asked, lifting his brows.
"That"s so unlikely," said I. "Come, shall it be so?"
Wetter looked me full in the face, and bowed low.
"I am at his Majesty"s orders," said he. He spoke now quite calmly.
Varvilliers and Vohrenlorf seemed to regard him with a sort of wonder.
At the risk of ridicule I must confess to something of the same feeling.
A bullet is no respecter of persons, and has no sympathy with ideas which (as the Englishman observes) it is hardly unjust to call mediaeval.
Yes, even I myself was a little surprised that Wetter should meet me in a duel. But, while I was surprised, I was glad.
"I am greatly indebted to M. Wetter," I said, returning his bow, "in that he does not insist on my disabilities."
For the briefest moment he smiled at me; I think my speech touched his humour. Then he grew grave again, and thanked Varvilliers formally for the offer of his services.
"There remains but one thing," said I. "We must a.s.sure the ladies that any difference of opinion there was between us is entirely past. Let us join them."
Vohrenlorf opened the door of the inner room and I entered, the rest following. Madame Briande sat in a straight-backed chair at the table; she had a book before her, but her restless anxious air made me doubt whether she had read much of it. I looked round for Coralie. There on the sofa she lay, her head resting luxuriously on the cushions and her bosom rising and falling in gentle regular breathing. The affair had not been interesting enough to keep Coralie awake. But now Vohrenlorf shut the door rather noisily; she opened her eyes, stretched her arms and yawned.
"Ah! You"ve done quarrelling?" she asked.
"Absolutely. We"re all friends again, and have come to say farewell."
"Well, I"m very sleepy," said she, with much resignation. "Go and sleep well, my friends."
"We"re forgiven for our bad manners?"
"Oh, but you were very amusing. You"re all going home now?"
"So we propose, mademoiselle."
Her eyes chanced to fall on Wetter. She pointed her finger at him and began to laugh.
"What makes you as pale as a ghost, my friend?" she asked.
"It"s late; I"m tired," he answered lamely and awkwardly.
She turned a shrewd glance on me. I smiled composedly.
"Ah, well, it"s no affair of mine," she said.
In turn we took farewell of her and of madame. But, as I was going out, she called me.
"In a minute, Vohrenlorf," I cried, waving my hand toward the door. The rest pa.s.sed out. Madame had wandered restlessly to the fireplace at the other end of the room. I returned to Coralie"s sofa.
"You"re going too?" she asked.
"Certainly," said I. "I must rest. I have to rise early, and it"s close on two o"clock."
"You don"t look sleepy."
"I depart from duty, not from inclination."
"You"ll come to see me to-morrow?"
"If I possibly can. Could you doubt it?"
"And why might you possibly not be able?"
"I am a man of many occupations."
"Yes. Quarrelling with Wetter is one."
"Indeed that"s all over."
"I"m not sure I believe you."
"You reduce me to despair. How can I convince you?"
Madame Briande walked suddenly to the door and went out. I heard her invite Vohrenlorf to take a gla.s.s of cognac, and his ready acceptance.
Coralie was sitting on the sofa now, looking at me curiously.
"I have liked you very much," she said slowly. "You are a good fellow, a good friend. I don"t know how it is--I feel uncomfortable to-night. Will you draw back a curtain and open a window? It"s hot."
I obeyed her; the cool night air rushed in on us, fresh and delicious.
She drew her legs up sideways on the sofa, clasping her ankles with her hand.
"Don"t you know," she cried impatiently, "how sometimes one is uncomfortable and doesn"t know why? It seems as though something was going to happen, one"s money to be lost, or one"s friends to die or go away; that somehow they had misfortunes preparing for one."
"I know the feeling well enough, but I"m sure you needn"t have it to-night."