"I beg your pardon, monsieur. But I did not know that it lay with me
to apologize to you because you almost rode me down."

"There, enough of that, my good fellow!" replied the sailor harshly,
in a sneering tone that was nothing less than insulting. At the same
time the Count raised his hunting-crop as if to strike his horse, and
touched the young fellow's shoulder, saying, "A liberal citizen is a
reasoner; every reasoner should be prudent."

The young man went up the bankside as he heard the sarcasm; then he
crossed his arms, and said in an excited tone of voice, "I cannot
suppose, monsieur, as I look at your white hairs, that you still amuse
yourself by provoking duels----"

"White hairs!" cried the sailor, interrupting him. "You lie in your
throat. They are only gray."

A quarrel thus begun had in a few seconds become so fierce that the
younger man forgot the moderation he had tried to preserve. Just as
the Comte de Kergarouet saw his niece coming back to them with every
sign of the greatest uneasiness, he told his antagonist his name,
bidding him keep silence before the young lady entrusted to his care.
The stranger could not help smiling as he gave a visiting card to the
old man, desiring him to observe that he was living at a country-house
at Chevreuse; and, after pointing this out to him, he hurried away.

"You very nearly damaged that poor young counter-jumper, my dear,"
said the Count, advancing hastily to meet Emilie. "Do you not know how
to hold your horse in?--And there you leave me to compromise my