"Your address, monsieur?"
"Here it is: Cherami, Hôtel du Bel-Air, Rue de l'Orillon, Belleville."
"Belleville! So you don't live in Paris?"
"I am in the suburbs. Does that disturb you?"
"It is a matter of absolute indifference to me; but my seconds will not call on you until ten o'clock, for I don't choose to make them get up at daylight."
"At ten o'clock, then, I will expect them. And now, monsieur le comte, permit me to offer you my respects."
"Good-day, monsieur, good-day!"
Monsieur de la Bérinière buried himself anew under the bedclothes, decidedly put out by the visit he had received. As for Cherami, he said to himself when he was in the street:
"I have my cue! He will fight—aye, but my seconds—I must have two; I absolutely must have them, or no duel. Where shall I find them? It's damnably embarrassing. I can't think of a solitary soul. Sapristi! where can I find two seconds? There's nothing to be said; I must have two, and two passably respectable ones, to-morrow morning!"