The clock struck twelve.
“I do not wish to hurry you, gentlemen,” said Louis, “but I think you should return the visit of those gentlemen. It will not do to put ourselves in the wrong.”
“Oh, you may be quite easy on that point,” I said, “we have plenty of time before us.”
“No matter,” said the Baron Giordano, “Louis is right.”
“Now,” said I, “we must know whether you prefer to fight with sword or pistol?”
“Ah,” he replied, “it is all the same to me; I know as little about one as the other. Besides, Monsieur de Chateau Renaud will save me all trouble in choosing; he looks upon himself, no doubt, as the offended party, and as such will retain the choice of weapons.”
“However, the offence is doubtful, you only offered your arm, as you were asked to do.”
“My opinion is,” said Louis, “that all discussion should tend towards a peaceable arrangement of this matter. My tastes are not warlike, as you know. Far from being a duellist, this is the first affair of the kind I have had, and just for this very reason I wish to come well out of it.”
“That is very easy to say, my friend, but you have to play for your life, and you leave to us and before your family the responsibility of the result.”
“Ah, as to that you may make your mind quite easy, I know my mother and brother well enough; they would only ask whether I had conducted myself as a brave man, and if you replied in the affirmative they would be satisfied.”