_Clarkson_--Ah! no ringing, please! Don't play the Louis XV. gentleman, and order your servants to cudgel a poor beggar! or as sure as my name is Clarkson, I'll slap your face, sir, before all your lackeys! _Septmonts_--Very well, so be it! I _will_ begin with you. [_Angrily hastens from the room for the weapons._] _Clarkson_--Quite right! [_Looking coolly at his watch._] Let me see; why, perhaps I _can_ get away from Paris this evening after all. [_He goes calmly out at the back toward the darkened garden._] [_The Duchess of Septmonts has pulled aside the portière and looks toward the door by which her husband and Mr. Clarkson have gone out. She is very much agitated, and can hardly walk. She rings the bell, and then makes an effort to appear calm. The servant comes in._] _Catherine_ [_tremulously, to the servant_]--Ask my father to come here, immediately. [_The servant goes out. Catherine looks toward the window and makes a movement to go to it._] No, I will not look out! I will not know anything! I do not know anything; I have _heard_ nothing; the minutes that that hand marks upon the clock, no one knows what they say to me. One of them will decide my life! Even if I had heard nothing, things would take the turn that they have, and I should merely be amazed in knowing of them. Instead of knowing nothing, I have merely to remember nothing. But no, no,--I am trying in vain to smother the voice of my own conscience! What I am doing is wicked. From the moment that I have known anything about this, I am an accomplice; and if one of these two men is killed he has been killed with my consent. No, I cannot and I will not. [_She runs toward the door. As she does so Mrs. Clarkson enters hastily._] You, you, madam! _Mrs. Clarkson_--Were you not really expecting me to-day, madam? My husband sends me a note to say that you--and he--wish to speak to me immediately. _Catherine_--Madam, since Mr. Clarkson has written you, there has occurred a thing which neither your husband, nor I, nor you yourself could foresee. _Mrs. Clarkson_--What do you mean? _Catherine_--While my husband the duke has been explaining to Mr. Clarkson the reasons of the duel,--which you, you, madam, have provoked,--your husband, who did not find these reasons either sufficient or honorable, has undertaken to defend us--Gérard, yes, Gérard, and me,--and so very forcibly, that at this instant-- _Mrs. Clarkson_--They are fighting? _Catherine_--Yes, yes, only a few steps away from here! _Mrs. Clarkson_--Ah! That sounds like Clarkson! [_She takes a step toward the door._] _Catherine_--Madam, that duel must not go on. _Mrs. Clarkson_--Why not? _Catherine_--I will not permit these two men to lose their lives on my account.