"Hi! you! Come here! Spicca! Stop! Excuse me--I am in a great hurry!" Count Spicca, whom he thus addressed, paused and looked round through his single eyeglass in some surprise.

He was an immensely tall and cadaverous-looking man, with a black beard and searching grey eyes.
"I really beg your pardon," said the Prince hurriedly, in a low voice, as he came up, "but I am in a great hurry--an affair of honour--will you be witness?
My carriage is at the door." "With pleasure," said Count Spicca, quietly; and without further comment he accompanied the Prince to the outer hall.

Giovanni was waiting, and the Prince's footman stood at the head of the stairs.

In three minutes the father and son and the melancholy Spicca were seated in the carriage, on their way to the Palazzo Saracinesca.
"Now then, Giovannino," said the Prince, as he lit a cigarette in the darkness, "tell us all about it." "There is not much to tell," said Giovanni.

"If the challenge arrives, there is nothing to be done but to fight.