"Our affair can not end thus," I remarked.
"Certainly not," replied Alexis. "You shall pay me with your blood for your impertinence, but as undoubtedly we shall be watched, let us feign for a few days. Until then, adieu!"
We separated as if nothing had happened. I returned to the Commandant's, and seated myself as usual near Marie. Her father was absent and her mother busy with household duties. We spoke in subdued tones. Marie reproached me gently for the pain my quarrel with Alexis gave her. "My heart failed me," she said, "when I heard you were going to fight with swords. How strange men are! For a word, they are ready to strangle each other, and sacrifice, not only their own life, but even the honor and happiness of those who-- I am sure you did not begin the quarrel? Alexis was the aggressor?"
"Why do you think so?"
"Because he is so sarcastic. I do not like him, and yet I would not displease him, although he is quite disagreeable to me."
"What do you think, Marie, are you pleasing to him or not?"
Marie blushed. "It seems," said she, "that I please him."
"How do you know?"
"Because he made me an offer of marriage."
"He made you an offer of marriage! When?"
"Last year, two months before your arrival."
"You did not accept?"
"Evidently not, as you see. Alexis is a most intelligent man, of an excellent family and not without fortune, but the mere idea that beneath the crown, on my marriage day, I should be obliged to kiss him before every one! No! no! not for any thing in the world."
Marie's words opened my eyes. I understood the persistence of Alexis in aspersing her character. He had probably remarked our mutual inclination, and was trying to turn us from each other. The words which had provoked our quarrel seemed to me the more infamous, as instead of being a vulgar joke, it was deliberate calumny. The desire to punish this shameless liar became so strong that I waited impatiently the favorable moment. I had not long to wait. The next day, occupied composing an elegy, biting my pen in the expectation of a rhyme, Alexis knocked at my window. I put down my pen, took my sword, and went out of the house.
"Why defer?" said Alexis, "we are no longer watched, let us go down to the river-side; there none will hinder us."
We set out in silence, and having descended a steep path, we stopped at the water's edge and crossed swords. Alexis was more skillful than I in the use of arms, but I was stronger and bolder. Mons. Beaupre, who had been, amongst other things, a soldier, had taught me fencing. Alexis did not expect to find in me an adversary of so dangerous a character.