The Ambassador felt as if he were choking. “Go to Gehenna!” he yelled. “You won’t? What will the family think when they hear that you have refused to stand by me in an affair of honour. Who’s to conduct my funeral if I fall?” “I’d be most infernally happy to conduct your funeral at this present moment. Cease this foolery, and talk sense—if you can. Should this freak end in the wounding or it may be, the killing of the Czar—which heaven forbid!—to whom do you intend to look for safety?” “To you, of course.” “To me?” “Most certainly. Doesn’t the nation pay you £10,000 a year to look after British subjects in Russia, of whom I am one?” “_I_ to protect you?” “If you don’t the British public will want to know the reason! Remember that the duel is not of _my_ seeking; he challenged me, not I him. In an autocratic realm what can a man do when its ruler insists on fighting him? It’s useless to go against the will of a fellow who can send you to Siberia for disobedience. And if he fall, whose is the blame?” “Well, I must be off,” continued Wilfrid, glancing at his watch; “but before going I should like—of course, with your permission—to see young Mulgrave,” naming his uncle’s chief secretary. “He is a man of spirit, and will stand by me in this affair.” “Do you think——?” began the Ambassador angrily, and then broke off as if hit by some sudden thought. “Well, I’ll send for him, and you’ll hear what he thinks. Perhaps you’ll listen to him, if not to me.” He pencilled a few words upon a card and touched a hand-bell, whose chime immediately brought in a servitor in livery. Handing him the card, and pointing to the name upon it, the Ambassador said with a meaning look, “Tell him to come at once.” The man had no sooner set eyes upon the card than he gave a slight start, glanced oddly at Wilfrid, and withdrew without a word. “Oho, my uncle,” thought Wilfrid, who had observed this little by-play, “why did you give a written message, when an oral one would have sufficed? There is something on that card you do not wish me to see. Very good! Forewarned is forearmed.” After a brief interval there came a tapping at the door. “Wait a moment, Williams,” cried Lord St. Helens. “Stay outside till I call.” “Williams? Why, I thought it was Mulgrave you sent for?” said Wilfrid in mock surprise. Ignoring this question, the Ambassador said with a stern air:— “I am to take it, then, that you have quite made up your mind to fight this duel?” “Certainly.” “Well, I have made up my mind that you shall not.” “And how do you propose to stop me?” “You are not in Russia now, remember. This Embassy is Great Britain, or rather, a part of Great Britain in Russia. As the representative of His Majesty King George, I am, so long as you are in this house, your sovereign, and you are my subject. In the exercise of my lawful authority——” “You’ll put me under arrest,” said Wilfrid, smiling amiably. “Yes, I thought that was the idea when you sent out that little note.”