"I'll be your friend, and get you out of the scrape," I said. "But it will mean that you must give up the Contessa." "Give up the Contessa!" echoed the Boy. "What do _I_ want with the Contessa! I'm sick of the sight of her." "Since when?" "Since the first day we met. I don't think she's even pretty. What you can see in her, I don't know--the silly little giggling thing! There, it's out at last." "What I see in her?" I repeated. "I like that." "I always supposed you did. But I can't _stand_ her." "Well, of all the---- Look here, why have you been hanging after her, if you--" "I didn't. I just wasn't going to let you make a fool of yourself over her, and then regret it afterwards. So I--I did my best to take her attention away from you, and I succeeded fairly well. It--vexed me to see you falling in love with her. She wasn't worth it." "There was never the remotest chance of my doing so." "You said there was." "I was chaffing, just to hear myself talk. I should have thought you would know that." "How could I know? You were always saying how pretty and dainty she was, and quoting poetry about her, while all the time I could read her shallow little mind, and see how different she was from what you imagined." "I think I have a fairly clear idea of her limitations." "But you told me that you'd planned to go down to Monte Carlo expressly to see the Contessa; and you said that it would perhaps be a wise thing for you to try and fall in love with her." "If a man has to try and fall in love with a woman, he's pretty safe. You and I seem to have been playing at cross purposes, youngster. You thought I was in danger of falling in love, and I thought you were already in." "You _couldn't_ have believed it, really." "I did, and supposed you wanted me out of the way." "I was thinking the same thing about you. You did seem jealous and sulky." "I was both; but it was because our friendship had been interfered with, Little Pal." "Oh, Man, do you really mean that?" "Every word of it. I wouldn't give up a talk with you for a kiss from the Contessa, of which, by the way, I'm very unlikely to have the chance. But you----" "I've been miserable for the last few days. I--I missed you, Man." "And I you, Boy." "What an awful pity it is I've got to stand up and be shot, just as we're good friends again, and everything's all right!" "You've got to do nothing of the sort. _Le cher_ Paolo will, if he is really in earnest and not bluffing, send his friend to me, and matters will be settled, never fear." "I don't fear. At least, I--hope I don't--much. Only I wasn't brought up to expect challenges to duels. They're not--in my line. But I won't apologise, whatever happens. No, I won't, I won't, _I won't_. I dare say it doesn't hurt much, being shot; and I suppose he wouldn't be so--so impolite as to shoot me in the face, would he?" "He is not going to shoot you anywhere," said I.