III.
“Before we leave this question I should like to make my meaning perfectly clear. In the world as we find it there are some things for which no definite penalty is prescribed, things that do not bring a man within the law, but that are none the less offences in the court of conscience and very properly censured. An action, such as we are now discussing, is to my mind a case in point, always supposing it to be a possible action; but is it possible?—that is the question.
“Put yourself in the place of a man who is compelled by force of circumstances to fight a duel. Your success, if you do succeed, may be due to the blessing of Providence, to skill, or to accident, but it must satisfy one condition,—it must be unequivocal. You are meeting an honourable enemy in an honourable fight, and obviously the means you employ must be beyond all question ‘straight,’ and not devices so crooked as almost to deserve the epithet ‘felonious.’”
I found myself speaking with some warmth, and was pleased to see that my remarks were received with great interest.
“Of course,” I continued, “in speaking or writing on a subject of this sort, one can only express a strictly personal opinion. Now, what do you say? We have been let in for this duel by an evening paper. Shall we drop it, or shall we see it through?”
I was answered by a general cry:—“Go on!”
“I am afraid it may take us rather far afield, for it involves important considerations.”
“So much the better,” observed my host, “we have plenty of cigars, and the night is young.”
We provided ourselves with fresh cigars to follow those already alight, and settled down in our arm-chairs, and the most profound silence reigned in the smoking-room.