I think I am correct in saying that such a thing has never happened before to M.le Marquis in all his life.

If you felt yourself affronted, you had but to ask the satisfaction due from one gentleman to another.

Your action would seem to confirm the assumption that you found so offensive.

But it does not on that account render you immune from the consequences." It was, you see, M.de Chabrillane's part to heap coals upon this fire, to make quite sure that their victim should not escape them.
"I desire no immunity," flashed back the young seminarist, stung by this fresh goad.

After all, he was nobly born, and the traditions of his class were strong upon him--stronger far than the seminarist schooling in humility.