"What do you mean by that long sermon?" demanded the Viscount, setting his teeth and frowning savagely.
"I mean that you have been making love to this poor girl, that you have been seeking to requite her care of you in a manner but little to your credit!"
"I owe you my life, Espérance," replied Massetti, "but even my gratitude will not shield you from my fury, if you step between me and Annunziata Solara!"
"You mean to pursue her then, to soil her name, to blast her future, for surely you are not courting her with marriage as your object?"
Giovanni flushed scarlet at this open accusation.
"I mean to pursue her--yes! What my object in the matter is concerns only myself; you have nothing whatever to do with it!" he exclaimed, hotly.
"But I have a great deal to do with it!" replied Espérance, firmly. "You shall not pursue Annunziata Solara to her destruction! Between her good name and your reckless intentions I will oppose a barrier you cannot surmount--myself!"
"Do you mean to champion her to the extent of challenging me?" demanded Massetti, fairly foaming with ire.
"If you persist in your nefarious designs, yes!" answered the son of Monte-Cristo, with equal warmth. "You are my friend, my friend of friends, Giovanni Massetti, but the instant you menace that innocent girl's honor my friendship for you crumbles to dust and you become my deadly foe! Take your choice. Either leave this hospitable cabin with me as soon as the state of your wound will permit you to do so, meanwhile respecting Annunziata Solara as you would your own sister, or meet me pistol in hand on the field of honor! Take your choice, I say! What is your decision?"
"I will not give up Annunziata!"
"Then you must fight!"
"I shall not hesitate!"
"So be it! My life against yours! I will defend this poor girl's honor to the last drop of my blood!"
"When shall we fight?"
"To-morrow at dawn."
"Where?"
"In the clearing beyond the chestnut copse on the further side of the brook. There is no need of witnesses; this matter is between us and us alone!"
"So much the better, for it will be a duel to the death! I cannot as yet hold my right arm aloft long enough to fight with it, but I will make my left hand serve!" Then, as a sudden thought struck him, Massetti added: "Do you propose to betray me, to carry your story to Annunziata and her brother?"
Espérance surveyed his companion with intense scorn flashing from his eyes.
"I am no traitor!" he said, coldly, and, turning, quitted the apartment.