he had a grievance against him.  “But if you, in the depths of your province,” he continued, “ever hear it said that your brother is of a quarrelsome disposition, don’t you believe it on any account.  There is no saying what gossip from the army may reach your innocent ears.  Whatever you hear you may rest assured that your ever-loving brother is not a duellist.”  Then Captain D’Hubert crumpled up the blank sheet of paper headed with the words “This is my last will and testament,” and threw it in the fire with a great laugh at himself.  He didn’t care a snap for what that lunatic could do.  He had suddenly acquired the conviction that his adversary was utterly powerless to affect his life in any sort of way; except, perhaps, in the way of putting a special excitement into the delightful, gay intervals between the campaigns.

From this on there were, however, to be no peaceful intervals in the career of Captain D’Hubert.  He saw the fields of Eylau and Friedland, marched and countermarched in the snow, in the mud, in the dust of Polish plains, picking up distinction and advancement on all the roads of North-eastern Europe.  Meantime, Captain Feraud, despatched southwards with his regiment, made unsatisfactory war in Spain.  It was only when the preparations for the Russian campaign began that he was ordered north again.  He left the country of mantillas and oranges without regret.

The first signs of a not unbecoming baldness added to the lofty aspect of Colonel D’Hubert’s forehead.  This feature was no longer white and smooth as in the days of his youth; the kindly open glance of his blue eyes had grown a little hard as if from much peering through the smoke of battles.  The ebony crop on Colonel Feraud’s head, coarse and crinkly like a cap of horsehair, showed many silver threads about the temples.  A detestable warfare of ambushes and inglorious surprises had not improved his temper.  The beak-like curve of his nose was unpleasantly set off by a deep fold on each side of his mouth.  The round orbits of his eyes radiated wrinkles.  More than ever he recalled an irritable and staring bird—­something like a cross between a parrot and an owl.  He was still extremely outspoken in his dislike of “intriguing fellows.”  He seized every opportunity to state that he did not pick up his rank in the ante-rooms of marshals.  The unlucky persons, civil or military, who, with an intention of being pleasant, begged Colonel Feraud to tell them how he came by that very apparent scar on the forehead, were astonished to find themselves snubbed in various ways, some of which were simply rude and others mysteriously sardonic.  Young officers were warned kindly by their more experienced comrades not to stare openly at the colonel’s scar.  But indeed an officer need have been very young in his profession not to have heard the legendary tale of that duel originating in a mysterious, unforgivable offence.

III