“I did not have the chance to fight last night; your informant's plans went wrong Dickey was my unintentional substitute. As for Ravorelli's challenge this morning, I did not refuse to meet him.”
“That is untrue!”
“I declined to fight the duel with him, but I said I would fight as we do at home, with my hands. Would you have me meet him with deadly weapons?”
“I only know that you refused to do so, and that Brussels calls you a coward.”
“You would have had me accept his challenge? Answer!”
“You lost every vestige of my respect by refusing to do so.”
“Then you wanted me to meet and to kill him,” he said, accusingly.
“I—I—Oh, it would not have meant that,” she gasped.
“Did you want him to kill me?” he went on, relentlessly.
“They would have prevented the duel! It could not have gone so far as that,” she said, trembling and terrified.