d gentleman, and would not have condescended to profit from
the poor Dujarier's lack of skill."

"Did you not," enquired counsel, "say 'I am a woman of courage, and,
if the meeting is in order, I will not stop it'?"

"Yes, but that was because I understood it was to be with de Beauvoir,
and he would not willingly have harmed Dujarier. When I heard it was
to be with de Beauvallon I exclaimed, 'My God! Dujarier is as good as
dead!'"

"I myself," she added, "could handle a pistol more accurately than the
poor Dujarier; and, if he had wanted satisfaction, I should have been
quite willing to have gone out with M. de Beauvallon myself."

A murmur of applause met this assurance. Lola's attitude appealed to
the spectators. She was clearly a woman of spirit.

During the proceedings that followed some sharp things were said about
M. Granier de Cassagnac, the accused's brother-in-law. Some of them
were so bitter that at last he protested.

"Monsieur le President," he exclaimed hotly. "I cannot bear these
abominable attacks on myself any longer."

"If you can't bear them, you can always leave the court," was the
response.

"This gentleman's indignation does not disturb me in the least," said
the public prosecutor. "I have already had experience of it, and I
consider it to be artificial."

VI

After all the witnesses had been examined and cross-examined, and
bullied and threatened in the approved fashion, Maitre Duval addressed
the jury on behalf of the dead man's relatives. In the course of this
he delivered a powerful speech, full of passion and invective, drawing
a parallel between this _affaire d'honneur_ and the historic one
between Alceste and Oronte in Moliere's drama. According to him,
Dujarier was a shining exemplar, while de Beauvallon was an
unmitigated scoundrel, with a "past" of the worst description
imaginable. Having once, years earlier, pledged a watch that did not
belong to him, he had "no right to challenge anybody, much less a
distinguished man of letters, such as the noble Dujarier." The various
causes of the quarrel were discussed next. Counsel thought very little
of them.

De Beauvallon had complained that Dujarier had "cut" him. "Is it an
offence," enquired M. Duval, "for one man to avoid another? Upon my
word, M. de Beauvallon will have to kill a number of people if he
wants to kill all those who decline the honour of his companionship."
As for the gambling quarrel, this was not serious. What