Part 5 (2/2)
M de Vil man had acted upon impulse, upon the instinct of decency and honour, never counting the consequences But he realized them now at the sinister invitation of M
de Chabrillane, and if he desired to avoid these consequences, it was out of respect for his priestly vocation, which strictly forbade such adjust upon him
He drew back ”Let one affront wipe out the other,” said he, in a dull voice ”The balance is still in M le Marquis's favour Let that content hihtly Thereafter he was suavity itself, but very firm ”A blow has been struck,has never happened before to M le Marquis in all his life If you felt yourself affronted, you had but to ask the satisfaction due froentleman to another Your action would seem to confirm the assumption that you found so offensive But it does not on that account render you immune from the consequences”
It was, you see, M de Chabrillane's part to heap coals upon this fire, to make quite sure that their victim should not escape the seoad After all, he was nobly born, and the traditions of his class were strong upon hi in humility He owed it to himself, to his honour, to be killed rather than avoid the consequences of the thing he had done
”But he does not wear a sword, hast
”That is easily amended He may have the loan of mine”
”I mean, messieurs,” Andre-Louis insisted, between fear for his friend and indignation, ”that it is not his habit to wear a sword, that he has never worn one, that he is untutored in its uses He is a seminarist--a postulant for holy orders, already half a priest, and so forbidden froement as you propose”
”All that he should have remembered before he struck a blow,” said M de Chabrillane, politely
”The bloas deliberately provoked,” raged Andre-Louis Then he recovered hihty stare had no part in that recovery ”O ainst a purpose formed! Come away, Philippe Don't you see the trap”
M de Vil hiht”
”M le Marquis is in the right?” Andre-Louis let his ar ht in the snare of the world's insanity He was baring his breast to the knife for the sake of a vague, distorted sense of the honour due to himself
It was not that he did not see the trap It was that his honour compelled him to disdain consideration of it To Andre-Louis in that ure noble, perhaps, but very pitiful
CHAPTER IV THE HERITAGE
It was M de Vilmorin's desire that the matter should be settled out of hand In this he was at once objective and subjective A prey to emotions sadly at conflict with his priestly vocation, he was above all in haste to have done, so that he ht resume a frame of mind more proper to it Also he feared himself a little; by which I mean that his honour feared his nature The circuoal that for some years now he had kept in view, had robbed hiht of the entle as a woman Aware of it, he feared that once the heat of his passion was spent heweakness, in the ordeal
M le Marquis, on his side, was no less eager for an immediate settlement; and since they had M de Chabrillane to act for his cousin, and Andre-Louis to serve as witness for M de Vil to delay theements were concluded, and you behold that sinisterly intentioned little group of four assereen behind the inn They were entirely private, screened e of trees, which, if leafless noas at least dense enough to provide an effective lattice
There were no forround M le Marquis removed his sword-belt and scabbard, but declined--not considering it worth while for the sake of so negligible an opponent--to divest himself either of his shoes or his coat Tall, lithe, and athletic, he stood to face the no less tall, but very delicate and frail, M de Vilmorin The latter also disdained to nized that it could avail hiuard fully dressed, two hectic spots above the cheek-bones burning on his otherwise grey face
M de Chabrillane, leaning upon a cane--for he had relinquished his sword to M de Vil him on the other side of the co fro cla hiainst and frustrate thisThat sane impulse was curbed, however, by the consciousness of its futility To cal to the conviction that the issue could not really be very serious
If the obligations of Philippe's honour compelled him to cross swords with the man he had struck, M de La Tour d'Azyr's birth coed lad he had so grievously provoked M le Marquis, after all, was a man of honour He could intend no more than to administer a lesson; sharp, perhaps, but one by which his opponentobstinately to that for coed The Marquis presented to his opponent the narrow edge of his upright body, his knees slightly flexed and converted into living springs, whilst M de Vilet, his knees wooden Honour and the spirit of fair play alike cried out against such a match
The encounter was very short, of course In youth, Philippe had received the tutoring in sword-play that was given to every boy born into his station of life And so he knew at least the rudiments of as now expected of hies coes, and then without any haste the Marquis slid his right foot along the e that went under M de Viluard, and with the utforward just in time to catch his friend's body under the arht of it, he went doith his burden until he was kneeling on the daainst Andre-Louis' left shoulder; Philippe's relaxed arms trailed at his sides; the blood welled and bubbled froar lips, Andre-Louis looked up at M de La Tour d'Azyr, who stood surveying his ith a countenance of grave but remorseless interest