'No,' I said; 'that was my mother's name. I took it for this
occasion only.'
His florid cheek lost a shade of its colour, and he bit his lips
as he glanced at the Lieutenant, trouble in his eyes. I had seen
these signs before, and knew them, and I might have cried
'Chicken-heart!' in my turn; but I had not made a way of escape
for him--before I declared myself--for nothing, and I held to my
purpose.
'I think you will allow now,' I said grimly, 'that it will not
harm me even if I put up with a blow!'
'M. de Berault's courage is known,' he muttered.
'And with reason,' I said. 'That being so suppose that we say
this day three months, M. le Capitaine? The postponement to be
for my convenience.'
He caught the Lieutenant's eye and looked down sullenly, the
conflict in his mind as plain as daylight. He had only to insist
that I must fight; and if by luck or skill he could master me his
fame as a duellist would run, like a ripple over water, through
every garrison town in France and make him a name even in Paris.
On the other side were the imminent peril of death, the gleam of
cold steel already in fancy at his breast, the loss of life and
sunshine, and the possibility of a retreat with honour, if
without glory.
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