route_, I'll go over to
Pipesandbeersbad, breakfast at the Hotel de France, and go and see
Humbugandschwerinn: he wants me to look at some English racers Brookes
has just sent him over. Make my excuses at Essellau; and I say, Vane,
see if you can't get us away in a day or two; have some call home, or
something, for I shall never stand this long."

With which not over-clear speech the Major mounted his horse and
cantered off towards the Bad.

I rode back; went to my own room, had some chocolate, read Pigault le
Brun, and about noon, seeing Virginie, the Tressillian, and several
others out on the terrace, went to join them. Marc slipped his arm
through mine and drew me aside.

"I say, Vane, what's all this about Telfer striking some fellow for
talking about the Tressillian? Staurmgaurn was over here just now, and
told me there was a row in the card-room at Humbugandschwerinn's
between Telfer and another Englishman. I knew nothing about it. Is it
true?"

"So far true," I answered, "that Telfer put a ball in the youth's wrist
at seven o'clock this morning; and serve him right too--he's an impudent
young snob."

"By Jove!" cried Marc, "what in the world made him take the
Tressillian's part? Have the _beaux yeux_ really made an impression on
the most unimpressionable of men?"

"The devil they have," said I, crossly; "but I wish she'd been at the
deuce first, for he's too good a fellow to waste his best years pining
after a pair of dark eyes."

Marc shrugged his shoulders. "_C'est vrai_; but we're all fools some
time or other. The idea of Telfer's chivalry! I declare it's quite like
the old days of Froissart and Commines--fighting for my lady's favor."
And away he went, singing those two famous lines from Alcyonee:

Pour meriter son coeur, pour plaire a ses beaux yeux,
J'ai fait la guerre aux rois: je l'aurais faite aux dieux;

and I thought to myself that if the Tressillian proved a De Longueville,
I could find it in my soul to shoot her without remorse.

But as I turned away from Marc, I came upon her, looking pale and ill
enough to satisfy anybody. The color flushed into her cheeks as she saw
me; we spoke of the weather, the chances of storm, Floss's new collar,
and other trifles; then she asked me, bending over her little dog,--

"Is Captain Staurmgaurn's news true, that your friend has--has been
quarrelling with a young Englishman?"

"Yes," I answered. "I wonder Staurmgaurn told you; it is scarcely a