“Dared?” he returned, with a flash of his eyes at the word.
“Dared,” I repeated.
“I am not answerable to you for the steps taken in the exigencies of State.”
“Exigencies of State you term it. A singular name to describe an act which in plain terms means that when one of your chief men has forced a quarrel on me and challenged me, you would shut me up to prevent our meeting, so that he might have an opportunity of branding me as a coward.”
“I do not think you a coward,” he answered slowly.
“Nor does your Duke Sergius now,” said I.
This touched him, for he asked with evident interest: “What has happened this morning? A good deal may turn on your answer.”
“He is not dead, if that’s what you mean—only badly wounded;” and I gave him a brief description of the fight. He listened closely, but without a sign of his feelings on his face.
“You seem to suggest that you could have killed him,” he said with half a sneer.
“His own second said as much to me, and offered to bear witness to the fact that he owed his life to my forbearance.”