'You only made bad worse by reflecting on Maurepas's riding,' said Dillon, smiling.
'_Par Dieu!_ I never thought of that,' broke in Fitzgerald.
'Then there was something occurred at court, wasn't there?'
'Oh, a mere trifle. He could not dance the second figure in the minuet with the Princesse de Clèves, and the Queen called me to take his place.'
'Worse than the affair of the horse, far worse,' muttered Dillon; 'Maurepas cannot forgive you either.'
'I shall assuredly not ask him, sir,' was the prompt rejoinder.
'And then you laughed at his Italian, didn't you? The "Nonce" said that you caught him up in a line he had misquoted.'
'He asked me himself if he were right, and I told him he was not; but I never laughed at his mistake.'
'They said you did, and that the Princesse de Lamballe made you repeat the story. No matter, it was still another item in the score he owes you.'
'I am led by these remarks of yours to suppose that you have latterly bestowed some interest in what has befallen me, Count: am I justified in this belief?'
'You have guessed aright, Fitzgerald. Thirty-eight years and seven months ago I entered this service, knowing less of the world than you do now. So little aware was I what was meant by a provocation, that I attributed to my own deficiency in the language and my ignorance of life what were intended as direct insults. They read me differently, and went so far as to deliberate whether I ought not to be called on to leave the corps. This at last aroused my indolence. I fought four of them one morning, and three the next--two fell fatally wounded. I never got but this--and he showed a deep scar on the wrist of his sword-arm. 'From that time I have had no trouble.'
'And this is an ordeal I must pass also, said Gerald calmly.
'I scarcely know how it is to be avoided, nor yet complied with. The king has declared so positively against duelling, that he who sends a challenge must consent to forgo his career in the service.'
'But, surely, not he who only accepts a provocation?'
'That is a difficulty none seems to have answered. Many think that all will be treated alike--the challenger and the challenged, and even the seconds. My own opinion is different.'
'It is not impossible, then, that M. de Maurepas desired to push me to demand satisfaction,' said Gerald slowly, for the light was beginning to break upon his mind.