“Yes, sir, I admit that it may appear singular; but I take you for a man of great sense and sound intellect, and after considering the subject deeply I have thought that you would put yourself in my place; that you would not wish to make me miserable, or to expose your own life for a young girl who can have inspired you with but a passing fancy, whilst my only wish is to secure the happiness or the misery of my life, whichever it may prove, by uniting her existence with mine.”

“But suppose that I should intend, like you, to ask her in marriage?”

“Then we should both be worthy of pity, and one of us would have ceased to exist before the other obtained her, for as long as I shall live Mdlle.  Samson shall not be the wife of another.”

This young man, well-made, pale, grave, as cold as a piece of marble, madly in love, who, in his reason mixed with utter despair, came to speak to me in such a manner with the most surprising calm, made me pause and consider.  Undoubtedly I was not afraid, but although in love with Mdlle.  Samson I did not feel my passion sufficiently strong to cut the throat of a man for the sake of her beautiful eyes, or to lose my own life to defend my budding affection.  Without answering the young man, I began to pace up and down my room, and for a quarter of an hour I weighed the following question which I put to myself:  Which decision will appear more manly in the eyes of my rival and will win my own esteem to the deeper degree, namely-to accept coolly his offer to cut one another’s throats, or to allay his anxiety by withdrawing from the field with dignity?

Pride whispered, Fight; Reason said, Compel thy rival to acknowledge thee a wiser man than he is.

“What would you think of me, sir,” I said to him, with an air of decision, “if I consented to give up my visits to Mdlle.  Samson?”

“I would think that you had pity on a miserable man, and I say that in that case you will ever find me ready to shed the last drop of my blood to prove my deep gratitude.”

“Who are you?”

“My name is Garnier, I am the only son of M. Garnier, wine merchant in the Rue de Seine.”

“Well, M. Gamier, I will never again call on Mdlle.  Samson.  Let us be friends.”

“Until death.  Farewell, sir.”

“Adieu, be happy!”

Patu came in five minutes after Garnier had left me:  I related the adventure to him, and he thought I was a hero.

“I would have acted as you have done,” he observed, “but I would not have acted like Garnier.”

It was about that time that the Count de Melfort, colonel of the Orleans regiment, entreated me through Camille, Coraline’s sister, to answer two questions by means of my cabalism.  I gave two answers very vague, yet meaning a great deal; I put them under a sealed envelope and gave them to Camille, who asked me the next day to accompany her to a place which she said she could not name to me.  I followed her;