"The lad is raving.

They were friends." "You heard what he said ?" quoth the Marquis.
"Nor can he, or you, or any man deny it," flung back Andre-Louis.
"Yourself, monsieur, you made confession when you gave me now the reason why you killed him.

You did it because you feared him." "If that were true--what, then ?" asked the great gentleman.
"Do you ask?
Do you understand of life and humanity nothing but how to wear a coat and dress your hair--oh, yes, and to handle weapons against boys and priests?
Have you no mind to think, no soul into which you can turn its vision?
Must you be told that it is a coward's part to kill the thing he fears, and doubly a coward's part to kill in this way?
Had you stabbed him in the back with a knife, you would have shown the courage of your vileness.

It would have been a vileness undisguised.

But you feared the consequences of that, powerful as you are; and so you shelter your cowardice under the pretext of a duel." The Marquis shook off his cousin's hand, and took a step forward, holding now his sword like a whip.