"What do you mean?" "Two weeks! What may not happen over there in two weeks? And I bound here, hard and fast, hand and foot! By what?--by the plaything code of a plaything honour! Now, if he were any other man under the canopy, I would not stay! The question is, is it imaginable that all this was of set purpose?" "Lewis, what is the matter?" Rand turned. "The matter, child? The matter is that you may unpack, and that we will give a dinner party! We do not travel to-morrow; no, nor the next day, nor the next! I have to await a gentleman's leisure." She hung upon his arm. "Lewis, Lewis, what is it? You are trembling--" He laughed. "Do you think it is with fear?" "Don't, don't!" she cried. "Don't be so angry--don't look so black! I am afraid of you. What is it, dearest, dearest?" "Wait," he said harshly. "Wait, Jacqueline, a moment." He put her abruptly from him, walked to the doorstone, and, sitting down, bowed his face upon his hands. For some moments he remained thus, while she stood under the beech tree, her hand upon her heart, watching him. At last he lifted his head, rose, and came back to her. "To-day, in the court room, I challenged Ludwell Cary. He has named, as is his right, time and place of our meeting. The time, something more than two weeks from to-day; the place, five miles from Richmond. I confess that I was taken by surprise. I had expected to-morrow morning and the wood beyond the race-course. If I thought--what, by all the gods, I do think!--that he had dared--that he had done this deliberately, with intent to keep me here, I--Jacqueline! why, Jacqueline!" "I'm--I'm not going to swoon," said Jacqueline, with difficulty. "Air, that is all--let me sit down a moment on the grass. A duel--you and Ludwell Cary." "I and Ludwell Cary." Rand uttered his short laugh. "How steadily have we been coming just to this! I think I knew it long ago. I have in me so much of the ancient Roman that I prize him, now that we are at grips, and think him a fair enemy. If I did not hate him, I would love him. But it is the first, and I'll not forgive this pretty trap he's laid! What does he think will come after these two weeks he has me shackled? Does he think that he can always keep me here?--or only until--until it is too late to go?" He struck his hand against the beech tree. "Well, well, mine enemy, we will try conclusions." Jacqueline rose from the grass, came to him, and laid her head upon his breast. "Lewis, is there no way out with honour? Must it be? He is my friend and you my husband whom I love. Will you face each other there like--like General Hamilton and Aaron Burr? Oh, break, my heart!"