But the
carriage has arrived, and I must claim the pleasure of your company."
"Now, really," she exclaimed, with impulsive regret, while her eyes
still hung with a fascinated gaze on Dannevig's face, "is it, then, so
necessary that we should go just now? Do you really insist upon it?
Mr. Dannevig was just telling me some charming adventures of his life
in Denmark."
"I am happy to say," I answered, "that I am so well familiar with Mr.
Dannevig's adventures as to be quite competent to supplement his
fragmentary statements. I shall be very happy to continue the
entertainment--"
"_Sacr--r-r-e nom de Dieu_!" Dannevig burst forth, leaping up from his
seat. "This is more than I can bear!" and he pulled a card from his
portmonnaie and flung it down on the table before me. "May I request
the honor of a meeting?" he continued, in a calmer voice. "It is high
time that we two should settle our difficulties in the only way in
which they are capable of adjustment."
"Mr. Dannevig," I replied, with a cool irony which I was far from
feeling, "the first rule of the code of honor, to which you appeal,
is, as you are aware, that the combatants must be equals in birth and
station. Now, you boast of being of royal blood, while I have no such
claim to distinction.
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