“What is still more extraordinary, Monsieur,” replied the other, “is that I saw them with my own eyes, five minutes ago, enter this house and I, too, saw their carriage drive away."....  He felt his anger increase and direct itself altogether against the watch-dog so suddenly raised upon the threshold of his rival’s house.

Florent, on his part, had begun to lose patience.  He had within him the violent irritability of the negro blood, which he did not acknowledge, but which slightly tinted his complexion.  The manner of Madame Steno’s former lover seemed to him so outrageous that he replied very dryly, as he opened the door, in order to oblige the caller to leave: 

“You are mistaken,—­Monsieur, that is all.”

“You are aware, Monsieur,” replied Boleslas, “of the fact that you just addressed me in a tone which is not the one which I have a right to expect from you....  When one charges one’s self with a certain business, it is at least necessary to introduce a little form.”

“And I, Monsieur,” replied Chapron, “would be very much obliged to you if, when you address me, you would not do so in enigmas.  I do not know what you mean by ‘a certain business,’ but I know that it is unbefitting a gentleman to act as you have acted at the door of a house which is not yours and for reasons that I can not comprehend.”

“You will comprehend them very soon, Monsieur,” said Boleslas, beside himself, “and you have not constituted yourself your brother’s slave without motives.”

He had no sooner uttered that sentence than Florent, incapable any longer of controlling himself, raised his cane with a menacing gesture, which the Polish Count arrested just in time, by seizing it in his right hand.  It was the work of a second, and the two men were again face to face, both pale with anger, ready to collar one another rudely, when the sound of a door closing above their heads recalled to them their dignity.  The servant descended the stairs.  It was Chapron who first regained his self-possession, and he said to Boleslas, in a voice too low to be heard by any one but him: 

“No scandal, Monsieur, eh?  I shall have the honor of sending two of my friends to you.”

“It is I, Monsieur,” replied Gorka, “who will send you two.  You shall answer to me for your manner, I assure you.”

“Ha!  Whatsoever you like,” said the other.  “I accept all your conditions in advance....  But one thing I ask of you,” he added, “that no names be mentioned.  There would be too many persons involved.  Let it appear that we had an argument on the street, that we disagreed, and that I threatened you.”

“So be it,” said Boleslas, after a pause.  “You have my word.  There is a man,” said he to himself five minutes later, when again rolling through the streets in his cab, after giving the cabman the address of the Palais Castagna.  “Yes, there is a man....  He was very insolent just now, and I lacked composure.  I am too nervous.  I should be sorry to injure the boy.  But, patience, the other will lose nothing by waiting.”