“Galesworth,” he said quietly, his glance searching my face, “I do not wish you to have any misunderstanding about my exact position in this affair.  The war is not personal with me.  We differ politically, and I am as loyal to the South as any one, and you wear the Blue with just as much honor as I wear the Gray.  But when it comes to men I stand with the one I believe to be nearest right.  Le Gaire forced this quarrel on you deliberately; he was threatening to do it before you came in.  In fact, his manner ever since our capture has disgusted me, and when he finally dared to drag Billie’s name into the controversy, I naturally rebelled.  If there is anything I despise in this world, sir, it is a bullying duellist, and, by Gad! that’s what the fellow looks like to me.”

“I comprehend perfectly, Major Hardy,” I said, as he paused.  “You are merely doing as you would be done by.”

“Well, yes, that’s a partial explanation.  I prefer to see fair play.  Yet I am going to confess that isn’t all of it.  I rather like you, young man—­not your damned uniform, understand—­and the way you’ve acted toward my girl.  You’ve been honorable and square, and, by Gad, sir, you’re a gentleman.  That’s why I am going to see you through this affair.  If all I hear is true, Le Gaire came back to me with a lie, and that is something I have never taken yet from any man.”

He stood straight as an arrow, his shoulders squared, his slender form buttoned tightly in the gray uniform coat.  The sun was upon his face, clear-cut, proud, aristocratic, and his eyes were the same gray-blue as his daughter’s.  Then he held out his hand and I clasped it gladly.

“I cannot express the gratitude I feel, Major Hardy,” I faltered.  “One hardly expects such kindness from an enemy.”

“Not an enemy, my boy—­merely a foeman.  I am a West Pointer, and some of the dearest friends I have are upon the other side.  But come, let us not be the last on the field.”

He tried to talk with me pleasantly as we crossed the garden, and approached the stable, and I must have answered, yet my mind was elsewhere.  This was all new to me, and my mood was a sober one.  My father was an old-time Puritan to whom personal combat was abomination, and even now I could feel his condemnation of my course.  I regretted myself the hot headedness which had led me on, but without the faintest inclination to withdraw.  Yet that earlier hatred of Le Gaire had left me, and his blow no longer stung.  No desire for revenge lingered, only a wish to have the whole matter concluded quickly, and a hope that we both might leave the field without serious injury.  It was in this frame of mind that I turned the corner of the stable, and saw the chosen duelling ground.  It was a smooth strip of turf running north and south, with the stable to the left, and a grove of trees opposite.  The building cast a shadow over most of the space, and altogether it was an ideal spot, well beyond view from the windows of the house.  Hardy opened the leather case, placing it upon the grass, and I saw the two derringers lying against the plush lining, deadly looking weapons, with long steel-blue barrels, and strangely carven stocks.  Someway they fascinated me, and I watched while he took them up and fondled them.