“Is it possible to doubt it?” cried Thélénie; “show me the man who would not fight after receiving a blow—unless he chose to be disgraced forever.”
“Oh! I will fight, madame; you may be perfectly sure that I will fight.”
“And I trust that you will kill that scoundrel who broke my husband’s teeth!—Come, Droguet, let us go. What in the world are you looking for, on the floor and under the tables?”
“I am looking for my teeth.”
“Mon Dieu! what’s the use? you don’t imagine you can glue them in again, do you?—Oh! what a scene!”
“Monsieur de Belleville, you will be one of my witnesses[E], of course.”
[E] Luminot uses the word témoin which means either a second (in a duel) or a witness.
“A witness—what for?”
“For my duel.”
“But I can’t be a witness, for I was not here; I didn’t hear the quarrel.”