ations, a plan of action which we will modify after discussion. In
short, it is a landmark that we may not launch into space."

"Pardon, sir," interrupted Montfanon, whose brows contracted still
more at the mention of the celebrated field-marshal, and, stopping by a
gesture the reader, who, in his surprise, dropped his lorgnon upon the
table on which his elbow rested. "I regret very much," he continued, "to
be obliged to tell you that Monsieur Dorsenne and I"--here he turned to
Dorsenne, who made an equivocal gesture of vexation--"can not admit the
point of view in which you place yourself.... You claim that we are here
to arrange a reconciliation. That is possible.... I concede that it is
desirable.... But I know nothing of it and, permit me to say, you do
not know any more. I am here--we are here, Monsieur Dorsenne and I,
to listen to the complaints which Count Gorka has commissioned you
to formulate to Monsieur Florent Chapron's proxies. Formulate those
complaints, and we will discuss them. Formulate the reparation you
claim in the name of your client and we will discuss it. The papers will
follow, if they follow at all, and, once more, neither you nor we know
what will be the issue of this conversation, nor should we know it,
before establishing the facts."

"There is some misunderstanding, sir," said Ardea, whom Montfanon's
words had irritated somewhat. He could not, any more than Hafner,
understand the very simple, but very singular, character of the Marquis,
and he added: "I have been concerned in several 'rencontres'--four
times as second, and once as principal--and I have seen employed without
discussion the proceeding which Baron Hafner has just proposed to
you, and which of itself is, perhaps, only a more expeditious means of
arriving at what you very properly call the establishment of facts."

"I was not aware of the number of your affairs, sir," replied Montfanon,
still more nervous since Hafner's future son-in-law joined in the
conversation; "but since it has pleased you to tell us I will take the
liberty of saying to you that I have fought seven times, and that I have
been a second fourteen.... It is true that it was at an epoch when the
head of your house was your father, if I remember right, the deceased
Prince Urban, whom I had the honor of knowing when I served in the
zouaves. He was a fine Roman nobleman, and did honor to his name. What
I have told you is proof that I have some competence in the mat