I had seen these signs before, and knew them, and I might have cried 'Chicken-heart!' in my turn; but I had not made a way of escape for him--before I declared myself--for nothing, and I held to my purpose.
'I think you will allow now,' I said grimly, 'that it will not harm me even if I put up with a blow!' 'M.

de Berault's courage is known,' he muttered.
'And with reason,' I said.

'That being so suppose that we say this day three months, M.le Capitaine?
The postponement to be for my convenience.' He caught the Lieutenant's eye and looked down sullenly, the conflict in his mind as plain as daylight.

He had only to insist that I must fight; and if by luck or skill he could master me his fame as a duellist would run, like a ripple over water, through every garrison town in France and make him a name even in Paris.

On the other side were the imminent peril of death, the gleam of cold steel already in fancy at his breast, the loss of life and sunshine, and the possibility of a retreat with honour, if without glory.