And nobody the wiser! It has been done only ten miles from here
to three poor devils of the disbanded Red Lancers of the Guard going
to their homes. What says your conscience, Chevalier? Can a D'Hubert do
that thing to three men who do not exist?"
A few stars had come out on the blue obscurity, clear as crystal, of the
sky. The dry, thin voice of the Chevalier spoke harshly.
"Why are you telling me all this?"
The general seized a withered, frail old hand with a strong grip.
"Because I owe you my fullest confidence. Who could tell Adele but you?
You understand why I dare not trust my brother-in-law nor yet my own
sister. Chevalier! I have been so near doing these things that I tremble
yet. You don't know how terrible this duel appears to me. And there's no
escape from it."
He murmured after a pause, "It's a fatality," dropped the Chevalier's
passive hand, and said in his ordinary conversational voice:
"I shall have to go without seconds. If it is my lot to remain on
the ground, you at least will know all that can be made known of this
affair."
The shadowy ghost of the _ancien regime_ seemed to have become more
bowed during the conversation.
"How am I to keep an indifferent face this evening before those two
women?" he groaned. "General! I find it very difficult to forgive you."
General D'Hubert made no answer.
"Is your cause good at least?"
"I am innocent."
This time he seized the Chevalier's ghostly arm above the elbow, gave it
a mighty squeeze.
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