I owed you an atonement for this imprudence.
"But the laws of honour are in the utmost degree rigid; and there was reason to fear that, however anxious I were to be your friend, I might be obliged to be your murderer.

Fortunately, the reputation of my courage is sufficiently established, not to expose it to any impeachment by my declining your present defiance.

It was lucky, however, that in our interview of yesterday you found me alone, and that accident by that means threw the management of the affair into my disposal.

If the transaction should become known, the conclusion will now become known along with the provocation, and I am satisfied.

But if the challenge had been public, the proofs I had formerly given of courage would not have excused my present moderation; and, though desirous to have avoided the combat, it would not have been in my power.