"You are laughing at me?"
"Not at all; besides the moment would be ill chosen to jest, for I have a serious affair on hand. Bouchereau has commissioned me to speak to you."
"And you call that a serious affair?" said the Captain, laughing scornfully.
"A matter that can only end in bloodshed, appears to me deserving of the epithet," said the Doctor, with assumed gravity.
"Ah! M. Bouchereau thirsts for my blood?" cried Pelletier, laughing still louder; "hitherto, I took him to be rather herbivorous than carniverous. And with what sauce does he propose to eat me—sword or pistol?"
"He leaves you the choice of arms," replied M. Magnian, with imperturbable seriousness.
"It's all one to me. I told him so already. Let me see: to-morrow I breakfast with some of my comrades; it is a sort of regimental feed, and I should not like to miss it, but the day after to-morrow, I'm your man. Will that do?"
"Perfectly. The day after to-morrow, seven in the morning, at the entrance of the forest of Vincennes."
"Agreed," said the Captain, familiarly slapping his companion's arm with his large brawny hand. "So you meddle with duelling, Doctor? I should have thought a man of your profession would have looked upon it as a dangerous competitor."
The physician replied to this very old joke, by a malicious smile, which he immediately repressed.