He obeyed, picked up the weapon, and returned it to the sheath.
"You may do what you will, my lord," he said, in a changed voice, "but you and I cannot adjust anything in this way."
"I am not here to discuss expediency," returned the Earl, "but to cross swords with you. It has come to that. We cannot both live with honour."
Marius looked from one woman to another—the Countess urging him on with fiery eyes and passion in her very breath, Miss Chressham, still and cold, forbidding. One hated the man who stood opposed to him; the other—what of that other? And he was bound to obey her because he held her very dear.
"I do not fight, my lord," he said. He folded his arms and moved away.
"By God!" cried the Earl, transported. "Are you coward, too—in this fashion, too—that you can put a last insult on me—on your house?"
The Countess flung herself before Marius, adding her fury to that of her husband.
"Have you failed me now? Will you shame me utterly?"
He looked, beyond them, at Miss Chressham.