I was lost in the crowd of officers, palace officials and leaders of Lautenburg society. The Grand Duchess had ordered a squad of the 7th Hussars to render the honours. By the Grand Duke's orders the great bell of the cathedral beat time to the procession with its heavy measured toll. A tall old man, with the ascetic face of a Moltke, in an ancient, shiny black frock coat, came first, with a haughty and sullen lieutenant in the blue uniform of the Brunswick Hussars. They were Richard and Albrecht von Graffenfried, the dead girl's father and brother. When the coffin entered the Temple of the Siegstrasse my very marrow seemed to freeze. It made me shiver to think that Melusine, whose voluptuous form seemed to cry aloud for the luxurious pomp of the Catholic ritual, should have belonged to the reformed faith. I had never been in a Protestant temple before. They are awful places. Your very tears seem afraid to rise, lest they should freeze on your eyelids. Pastor Silbermann delivered a sermon, his thin form, in its uncouth gown, reminiscent of the master of some masonic lodge emerging from a kind of revolving pulpit. For some reason I could not fathom he had selected from the Scriptures the incident of Jephthah's daughter. Nothing could have been less appropriate to the frail departed than this reference to the sacrifice of that dismal, austere Jewess. For a whole half-hour the pastor expounded, with the indefatigable enthusiasm of a mathematics' master the three conditions for the equality of triangles. When he came to the celebrated phrase, "_Strike this bosom which for thee is unveiled_," my eyes sought the Grand Duchess. I saw she was weeping. We went from the Temple to the station in cars. The coffin, with its fast-fading flowers, was put in a special carriage. When I returned to the palace I met Lieutenant von Hagen in the Great Gallery, as deserted at five o'clock in the afternoon as if it had been midnight. He was pale and appeared as if he had been waiting for me. "Monsieur," he said, in a low voice, "yesterday morning I waited for you two hours at the La Meilleraie bridge." "I had entirely forgotten our little meeting," I said. "I admit it frankly." "After this," he muttered quietly, "may I hope there'll be no more of your troublesome lapses of memory?" And so saying he tapped my cheek with the glove in his right hand. I had some difficulty in keeping myself from retaliating with a good sound cuff. His elaborate pretence of self-possession saved me. "Sir," I said, "I shall be at your disposal at six o'clock tomorrow." "Let us arrange everything now, if you please. No seconds, no witnesses, of course. As you are the challenged party, what weapon will you choose?" If I had been less excited than I was this question would have been a very awkward one. As it happened, I didn't hesitate. "This," I replied, drawing the Grand Duchess's revolver from my pocket. I could see it was a shock, but he concealed it.