t and
brought him up. He was in a very bad humour--"

"What has all this absurd story got to do with the matter?" asked the old
man, impatiently.

"It is the matter itself. The irascible Giovanni is angry at being
questioned, treats us all like mud under his feet, sits down by the
Duchessa and forces us to go away. The Duchessa tells him the story, with
a laugh no doubt, and Giovanni's wrath overflows. He goes in search of
Del Ferice, and nearly strangles him. The result of these eccentricities
is the first duel, leading to the second."

Astrardente was very angry, and his thin gloved hands twitched nervously
at the handle of his stick.

"And this," he said, "this string of trivial ball-room incident, seems to
you a sufficient pretext for stating that the duel was about my wife?"

"Certainly," replied Valdarno, coolly. "If Saracinesca had not been for
months openly devoting himself to the Duchessa--who, I assure you, takes
no kind of notice of him--"

"You need not waste words--"

"I do not,--and if Giovanni had not thought it worth while to be jealous
of Del Ferice, there would have been no fighting."

"Have you been telling your young friends that my wife was the cause of
all this?" asked Astrardente, trembling with a genuine rage which lent a
certain momentary dignity to his feeble frame and painted face.

"Why not?"

"Have you or have you not?"

"Certainly--if you please," returned Valdarno insolently, enjoying the
old man's fury.

"Then permit me to tell you that you have taken upon yourself an
outrageous liberty, that you have lied, and that you do not deserve to be
treated like a gentleman."

Astrardente got upon his feet and left the cafe without further words.
Valdarno had indeed wounded him in a weak spot, and the wound was mortal.
His blood was up, and at that moment he would have faced Valdarno sword
in hand, and might have proved himself no mean adversary, so great is the
power of anger to revive in the most decrepit the energies of youth. He
believed in his wife with a rare sincerity, and his blood boiled at the
idea of her being rudely spoken of as the cause of a scandalous quarrel,
however much Valdarno insisted upon it that she was as indifferent to
Giovanni as to Del Ferice. The story was a shallow invention upon the
face of it. But though the old man told himself so again and again as he
almost ran through the narrow streets towards his house, there was one
thought suggested by Valdar