ning
when Wetter and I met in the Pavilion. I had hit on a good plan. I was
known to practise often, and Wetter was given to the same pursuit.
Indeed we had shot against one another in club matches before now, and
come off very equal. It was not likely that suspicion would be aroused;
the very early hour was our vulnerable point, but this could not be
helped. Had we come later, we should have been pestered by attendants
and markers. In other respects the ordinary arrangements for matches
suited our purpose well. There was a target at either end of the
Pavilion; each man chose an end to fire from. When he had discharged his
bullet he retreated to a little shelter, of which there were two at each
end, one for the shooter, one for the marker. His opponent then did the
like. To account for what was meant to occur this morning we had only to
make it believed that one of us, Wetter or I, as chance willed, had
incautiously stepped out of his shelter at the wrong time. To render
this plausible we agreed to pretend a misunderstanding; the man hit was
to have thought that his opponent would fire only one shot, the man who
escaped would express deepest regret, but maintain that the arrangement
had been for two successive shots. I had very little doubt that these
arrangements for baffling inconvenient inquiry would prove thoroughly
adequate. For the rest, I made up a packet for Varvilliers containing a
present for Coralie. To make any other preparations would not have been
fair to Wetter; for my death, if it happened, must seem absolutely
accidental. After all I did not feel such confidence in my value to the
country, or in my wisdom, as to desire to leave my last will and
testament. Victoria would do very well, no doubt. It was odd to think of
her sleeping peacefully in the opposite wing, without an idea that
anything touching her fortunes was being done in the Garden Pavilion.

The external scene is clearer to me than the picture of my own mind;
yet there also I can trace the main outlines. The heat of passion was
past; I was no longer in the stir of rivalry. I knew that it was through
and because of Coralie that I had come into this position, and that
Wetter had done what he had. But the thought of her, and the desire to
conquer him in her favour or punish him for seeking it, were no more my
foremost impulses. I can claim no feeling so natural, so instinctive, so
pardonable because so natural. I was angry with him. I had waived m