He made a gesture of impatience as I spoke.
"My son, sir, is a fool! A good-for-nothing fool! Oh, I have heard of this affair, a vulgar tavern brawl, the fifth in which his name has been involved and besmirched.

I had news this morning by a courier dispatched me by my friend St.Simon, who imagines that I am deeply concerned in that young profligate.

I learn that he is out of danger, and that in a month or so, he will be about again and ready to disgrace the name of Canaples afresh.

But there, sir; I crave your pardon for the interruption." I bowed, and when in answer to my questions he told me that he was in ignorance of the details of the affair of which I spoke, I set about laying those details before him.

Beginning with the original provocation in the Palais Royal and ending with the fight in the horse-market, I related the whole story to him, but in an impersonal manner, and keeping my own name out of my narrative.