“As eager for the fray as yourself, eh?”
“Quite.”
“But see here, Alick! I promised to stand by you in this cause, and I will do it; but though I bear your challenge, I shall try to settle this affair amicably.”
“‘Amicably?’ It can never——”
“Oh, I know it would be quite useless to argue with you, but Prince Ernest may be more amenable to reason, more open to conviction.”
“Will you go?”
“Well, yes, I am going,” said Tredegar, leaving the room.
As soon as he was alone Alexander looked at the clock. It wanted a quarter to five.
In passing before his dressing-table, his eye caught the reflection of his ghastly face in the glass.
“Good heavens!” he said, “I look like a ghost already. I shall not look more pallid after that fellow has killed me—if he does kill me—than I do now; and that chance of death reminds me that I must settle up my worldly affairs as quickly as I can.”