eturn!... And you, Dorsenne, since you are afraid
of wounding that gentleman, I will not prevent you from going to his
house--personally, do you hear--to warn him that Monsieur Chapron, here
present, has chosen for his first second a disagreeable person, an old
duellist, anything you like, but who desires strict form, and, first of
all, a correct call made upon us by them, in order to settle officially
upon a rendezvous."

"What did I tell you?" asked Dorsenne, when he with Florent descended
Montfanon's staircase. "He is a different man since you mentioned the
Baron to him. The discussion between them will be a hot one. I hope
he will not spoil all by his folly. On my honor, if I had guessed whom
Gorka would choose I should not have suggested to you the old leaguer,
as I call him."

"And I, if Monsieur de Montfanon should make me fight at five paces,"
replied Chapron, with a laugh, "would be grateful to you for having
brought me into relations with him. He is a whole-souled man, as was my
poor father, as is Maitland. I adore such people."

"Is there no means of having at once heart and head?" said Julien to
himself, on reaching the Palais Savorelli, where Hafner lived, and
recalling the Marquis's choler on the one hand, and on the other the
egotism of Maitland, of which Florent's last words reminded him. His
apprehension of the afternoon returned in a greater degree, for he knew
Montfanon to be very sensitive on certain points, and it was one of
those points which would be wounded to the quick by the forced relations
with Gorka's witnesses. "I do not trust Hafner," thought he; "if the
cunning fellow has accepted the mission utterly contrary to his tastes,
his habits, almost to his age, it must be to connive with his future
son-in-law and to conciliate all. Perhaps even the marriage had been
already settled? I hope not. The Marquis would be so furious he would
require the duel to a letter."

The young man had guessed aright. Chance, which often brings one
event upon another, decreed that Ardea, at the very moment that he was
deliberating with Gorka as to the choice of another second, received a
note from Madame Steno containing simply these words: "Your proposal
has been made, and the answer is yes. May I be the first to embrace you,
Simpaticone?"

An ingenious idea occurred to him; to have arranged by his future
father-in-law the quarrel which he considered at once absurd, useless,
and dangerous. The eagerness wit