"N--n--no!" sobs Freddy, his fingers in his eyes, and the corners of his mouth terribly depressed; "but os--ostler Frank----"
Ostler Frank is the second coachman and Freddy's personal friend.
"Ostler Frank is an ass!" exclaims the captain, beginning to trace the connection of ideas in his son's mind; "an ass. You must not let him frighten you."
"What did he tell you?" asks Katrine, standing beside her husband. "How did he frighten you? He has not dared to tell you a ghost-story? I expressly forbade it."
"Oh, no, Katrine: 'tis all about some stupid nonsense, not worth speaking of," replies the captain,--"a mere nothing."
"I should like to know what it is, however," Katrine says, growing more uneasy.
"He--told--me--papa must fight a duel; and when--they--fight a duel--they are killed!" Freddy screams, in despair, nearly throttling his father in his affection and terror.
"I should really be glad to have some intelligible explanation of the matter," Katrine says, with dignity.
"Oh, it is the merest trifle," the captain rejoins, changing colour, and tugging at his moustache.
"The affair is very simple, madame," Rohritz interposes. "Les felt it his duty, lately,--the day before yesterday, in fact,--to chastise an impertinent scoundrel in Hradnyk, and has conscientiously kept at home since, awaiting the fellow's challenge,--of course in vain. What he should have done would have been to emphasize in a note the box on the ear he administered."