"With your permission," replied Philippe, squeezing her hand as if in
a vice. "Come! we must have an understanding, you and I"; and he led

the bewildered woman out into the place Saint-Jean.
"My fine lady," began the old campaigner, stretching out his right

hand, "three days hence, Maxence Gilet will be sent to the shades by
that arm, or his will have taken me off guard. If I die, you will be

the mistress of my poor imbecile uncle; 'bene sit.' If I remain on my
pins, you'll have to walk straight, and keep him supplied with first-

class happiness. If you don't, I know girls in Paris who are, with all
due respect, much prettier than you; for they are only seventeen years

old: they would make my uncle excessively happy, and they are in my
interests. Begin your attentions this very evening; if the old man is

not as gay as a lark to-morrow morning, I have only a word to say to
you; it is this, pay attention to it,--there is but one way to kill a

man without the interference of the law, and that is to fight a duel
with him; but I know three ways to get rid of a woman: mind that, my

beauty!"
During this address, Flore shook like a person with the ague.

"Kill Max--?" she said, gazing at Philippe in the moonlight.
"Come, here's my uncle."

Old Rouget, turning a deaf ear to Monsieur Hochon's remonstrances, now
came out into the street, and took Flore by the hand, as a miser might

have grasped his treasure; he drew her back to the house and into his
own room and shut the door.

"This is Saint-Lambert's day, and he who deserts his place, loses it,"
remarked Benjamin to the Pole.

"My master will shut your mouth for you," answered Kouski, departing
to join Max who established himself at the hotel de la Poste.

On the morrow, between nine and eleven o'clock, all the women talked
to each other from door to door throughout the town. The story of the

wonderful change in the Rouget household spread everywhere. The upshot
of the conversations was the same on all sides,--

"What will happen at the banquet between Max and Colonel Bridau?"
Philippe said but few words to the Vedie,--"Six hundred francs'

annuity, or dismissal." They were enough, however, to keep her
neutral, for a time, between the two great powers, Philippe and Flore.

Knowing Max's life to be in danger, Flore became more affectionate to
Rouget than in the first days of their alliance. Alas! in love, a

self-interested devotion is sometimes more agreeable than a truthful
one; and that is why many men pay so much for clever deceivers. The

Rabouilleuse did not appear till the next morning, when she came down
to breakfast with Rouget on her arm. Tears filled her eyes as she

beheld, sitting in Max's place, the terrible adversary, with his
sombre blue eyes, and the cold, sinister expression on his face.

"What is the matter, mademoiselle?" he said, after wishing his uncle
good-morning.

"She can't endure the idea of your fighting Maxence," said old Rouget.
"I have not the slightest desire to kill Gilet," answered Philippe.

"He need only take himself off from Issoudun and go to America on a
venture. I should be the first to advise you to give him an outfit,

and to wish him a safe voyage. He would soon make a fortune there, and
that is far more honorable than turning Issoudun topsy-turvy at night,

and playing the devil in your household."
"Well, that's fair enough," said Rouget, glancing at Flore.

"A-mer-i-ca!" she ejaculated, sobbing.
"It is better to kick his legs about in a free country than have them

rot in a pine box in France. However, perhaps you think he is a good
shot, and can kill me; it's on the cards," observed the colonel.

"Will you let me speak to him?" said Flore, imploring Philippe in a
humble and submissive tone.

"Certainly; he can come here and pack up his things. I will stay with
my uncle during that time; for I shall not leave the old man again,"

replied Philippe.
"Vedie," cried Flore, "run to the hotel, and tell Monsieur Gilet that

I beg him--"
"--to come and get his belongings," said Philippe, interrupting

Flore's message.
"Yes, yes, Vedie; that will be a good pretext to see me; I must speak

to him."
Terror controlled her hatred; and the shock which her whole being

experienced when she first encountered this strong and pitiless nature
was now so overwhelming that she bowed before Philippe just as Rouget

had been in the habit of bending before her. She anxiously" target="_blank" title="ad.挂念地；渴望地">anxiously awaited
Vedie's return. The woman brought a formalrefusal from Max, who

requested Mademoiselle Brazier to send his things to the hotel de la
Poste.

"Will you allow me to take them to him?" she said to Jean-Jacques
Rouget.

"Yes, but will you come back?" said the old man.
"If Mademoiselle is not back by midday, you will give me a power of

attorney to attend to your property," said Philippe, looking at Flore.
"Take Vedie with you, to save appearances, mademoiselle. In future you

are to think of my uncle's honor."
Flore could get nothing out of Max. Desperate at having allowed

himself, before the eyes of the whole town, to be routed out of his
shameless position, Gilet was too proud to run away from Philippe. The

Rabouilleuse combated this objection, and proposed that they should
fly together to America; but Max, who did not want Flore without her

money, and yet did not wish the girl to see the bottom of his heart,
insisted on his intention of killing Philippe.

"We have committed a monstrous folly," he said. "We ought all three to
have gone to Paris and spent the winter there; but how could one

guess, from the mere sight of that fellow's big carcass, that things
would turn out as they have? The turn of events is enough to make one

giddy! I took the colonel for one of those fire-eaters who haven't two
ideas in their head; that was the blunder I made. As I didn't have the

sense to double like a hare in the beginning, I'll not be such a
coward as to back down before him. He has lowered me in the estimation

of this town, and I cannot get back what I have lost unless I kill
him."

"Go to America with forty thousand francs. I'll find a way to get rid
of that scoundrel, and join you. It would be much wiser."

"What would people say of me?" he exclaimed. "No; I have buried nine
already. The fellow doesn't seem as if he knew much; he went from

school to the army, and there he was always fighting till 1815; then
he went to America, and I doubt if the brute ever set foot in a

fencing-alley; while I have no match with the sabre. The sabre is his
arm; I shall seem very generous in offering it to him,--for I mean, if

possible, to let him insult me,--and I can easily run him through.
Unquestionably, it is my wisest course. Don't be uneasy; we shall be

masters of the field in a couple of days."
That it was that a stupid point of honor had more influence over Max

than sound policy. When Flore got home she shut herself up to cry at
ease. During the whole of that day gossip ran wild in Issoudun, and

the duel between Philippe and Maxence was considered inevitable.
"Ah! Monsieur Hochon," said Mignonnet, who, accompanied by Carpentier,

met the old man on the boulevard Baron, "we are very uneasy; for Gilet
is clever with all weapons."

"Never mind," said the old provincial diplomatist; "Philippe has
managed this thing well from the beginning. I should never have

thought that big, easy-going fellow would have succeeded as he has.
The two have rolled together like a couple of thunder-clouds."

"Oh!" said Carpentier, "Philippe is a remarkable man. His conduct
before the Court of Peers was a masterpiece of diplomacy."