“Oh, with what have you regaled him? For I will wager it is Firmin’s rifle.”
“Quite right, Andoche. And permit me to add that your friend Firmin is the biggest coward in the country.”
“Mon Dieu! Have you just discovered that?”
“I did not know that such a craven existed on the face of the earth. No.”
“How did you find it out at last?”
“I was down at Balance Rock, and he killed a young doe under my very nose.”
“A doe? Indeed that is a crime. And so you got angry and thumped him without further ceremony, eh?”
“No; but I demanded satisfaction.”
“À propos of what?”
“Of my wife,” replied Savin, laconically.