"Yes, yes, that's all right, don't be alarmed. In old times, the seconds used to fight; and if you want to follow the example of the raffinés,—under Louis XIII, for instance, they sometimes fought six against six; those were pleasure parties, on my word!"
"A delicious kind of pleasure! I have no admiration for the manners of those days."
"Well, Tobie, come on, for heaven's sake! What the devil! are your trousers too tight for you? you act as if you couldn't walk!"
"Yes, they cut me; they hurt me terribly."
Count Dahlborne's second was a Swede, a friend of his, who was as tall and stiff as he; he had been in Paris only a few days, and did not understand French, his ability to speak that tongue being thus far limited to the phrases: Oui, monsieur, and bien obligé.
Albert went forward to meet his opponent, and they saluted each other with much courtesy.
"Allow me to present Monsieur de Mulberg," said the count, waving his hand toward his second.
Albert, assuming that it was a Swedish custom to introduce one's second, stepped back, and said, indicating Tobie, who persisted in remaining in the background:
"And I have the honor of presenting Monsieur Tobie Pigeonnier."
The salutations were repeated, and Monsieur de Mulberg walked up to Tobie and held out his hand, saying: