"Everybody knows how to fire a pistol."
"I have never tried."
"To-morrow morning I will take you to Lepage's shooting gallery; you must spend six hours there, and when you get through you will be able to fire well enough to fight a duel."
"But suppose Monsieur Tobie refuses?"
"Then you will have the right to punish him another way. Carry your stick, in case you need it."
"But, Herminie——"
"But I tell you, monsieur, that I will have it so. Now, let us go home; I shall not appear again in society until I am avenged; for it seemed to me to-night that people avoided me, and that the young men laughed and whispered together as they looked at me."
"Your cigar was the cause of that, madame."
"No matter! when you have chastised the man who chose to amuse himself at my expense, others will not be tempted to imitate him. Let us go, monsieur."
And the robust Herminie carried off her husband, who was not at all pleased at being forced to fight, and, for the first time in his life, was trying to think how he could manage to disobey his wife.