"Capriani has sent this note to you."
"To me? Let me have it."
Oswald took the note and retired to the bedside again. Shortly afterward he appeared in the adjoining room where Georges was, his eyes filled with gloom, his face ghastly pale.
"What does the dog say?"
"He asks where his second can find me, as I might not like to receive him beneath my mother's roof. He is right--!"
"Second?" Georges interrupted him. "Have you quarrelled?"
"Yes, he was insolent to me and to Fritz, and so I called him a scoundrel and turned him out of the room."
"And you are going to accept his challenge?"
"Yes!"
"You, you mean to fight with Conte Capriani--with a wretched swindler, with no claim to the satisfaction of a gentleman? Are you insane? Do you not see how such a duel must degrade you?--Show me his letter that I may know what to do, and then let me go to him. I assure you that the matter can be settled in a quarter of an hour; it is nothing but empty brag on his part."