s only at M. de
Beauvallon's urgent demand that we are proceeding in the matter."

As the challenged party, Dujarier had the choice of weapons. The
privilege, however, was not worth much to him. He had never handled
cold steel, while his adversary was an expert fencer, and he was also
such a poor marksman that he could not have made sure of hitting a
haystack at twenty yards. Still, he reflected that, although de
Beauvallon was unlikely to miss him with a rapier, he might possibly
do so with a bullet. Accordingly, he elected for pistols.

When Dujarier came back to her that evening, Lola, with womanly
intuition, saw that some trouble had befallen him. Under pressure, he
admitted that he was about to fight a duel for which he had no
stomach. At the same time, however, he led her to believe that his
adversary was de Beauvoir, and not de Beauvallon.

Having thus calmed her fears, for she knew that de Beauvoir was no
more a fire-eater than was he himself, he went off to have another
consultation with his seconds.

"I shall not be back until late," he said, "as I am supping with
Dumas. You must not stop up for me."

Instead, however, of returning that night, Dujarier, feeling that he
could not face Lola and tell her the truth, stopped with one of his
seconds. There he wrote and sealed a couple of letters, charging de
Boignes to "deliver them if required by circumstances." The first was
to his mother:

If this letter reaches you, it will be because I shall be
dead or else dangerously wounded. To-morrow morning I am
going out to fight with pistols. My position requires it;
and, as a man of honour, I accept the challenge. If you, my
good mother, should have cause to weep, it is better that
you should shed tears for a son worthy of yourself than to
shed them for a coward. I go to the combat in the spirit of
a man who is calm and sure of himself. Justice is on my
side.

A more difficult, although less flamboyant, letter to write was the
second one, for its recipient would be the woman who had given him her
heart: and was even then anxiously awaiting his return:

MY EVER DEAREST LOLA:

I want to explain why it was I slept by myself and did not
come to you this morning. It is because I have to fight a
duel. All my calmness is required, and seeing you would have
upset me. By two o'clock this afternoon everything will be
over.

A thousand f