The Point Of Honor: A Military Tale

by Joseph Conrad

into that very salon was in the leastdistasteful to him, but because having but lately arrived in Strasbourghe had not the time as yet to get an introduction to Madame de Lionne.And what was that swashbuckler Feraud doing there? He did not seem thesort of man who...

  "Are you certain of what you say?" asked Lieutenant D'Hubert.

  The girl was perfectly certain. Without turning round to look at himshe explained that the coachman of their next-door neighbours knewthe _maitre-d'hotel_ of Madame de Lionne. In this way she got herinformation. And she was perfectly certain. In giving this assurance shesighed. Lieutenant Feraud called there nearly every afternoon.

  "Ah, bah!" exclaimed D'Hubert ironically. His opinion of Madame deLionne went down several degrees. Lieutenant Feraud did not seem to himspecially worthy of attention on the part of a woman with a reputationfor sensibility and elegance. But there was no saying. At bottom theywere all alike--very practical rather than idealistic. LieutenantD'Hubert, however, did not allow his mind to dwell on theseconsiderations. "By thunder!" he reflected aloud. "The general goesthere sometimes. If he happens to find the fellow making eyes atthe lady there will be the devil to pay. Our general is not a veryaccommodating person, I can tell you."

  "Go quickly then. Don't stand here now I've told you where he is," criedthe girl, colouring to the eyes.

  "Thanks, my dear. I don't know what I would have done without you."

  After manifesting his gratitude in an aggressive way which at first wasrepulsed violently and then submitted to with a sudden and still morerepellent indifference, Lieutenant D'Hubert took his departure.

  He clanked and jingled along the streets with a martial swagger. Torun a comrade to earth in a drawing-room where he was not known did nottrouble him in the least. A uniform is a social passport. His positionas _officier d'ordonnance_ of the general added to his assurance.Moreover, now he knew where to find Lieutenant Feraud, he had no option.It was a service matter.

  Madame de Lionne's house had an excellent appearance. A man in liveryopening the door of a large drawing-room with a waxed floor, shouted hisname and stood aside to let him pass. It was a reception day. Theladies wearing hats surcharged with a profusion of feathers, sheathed inclinging white gowns from their armpits to the tips of their low satinshoes, looked sylphlike and cool in a great display of bare necksand arms. The men who talked with them, on the contrary, were arrayedheavily in ample, coloured garments with stiff collars up to theirears and thick sashes round their waists. Lieutenant D'Hubert made hisunabashed way across the room, and bowing low before a sylphlike formreclining on a couch, offered his apologies for this intrusion, whichnothing could excuse but the extreme urgency of the service order hehad to communicate to his comrade Feraud. He proposed to himself to comepresently in a more regular manner and beg forgiveness for interruptingthis interesting conversation....

  A bare arm was extended to him with gracious condescension even beforehe had finished speaking. He pressed the hand respectfully to his lipsand made the mental remark that it was bony. Madame de Lionne was ablonde with too fine a skin and a long face.

  "_C'est ca!_" she said, with an ethereal smile, disclosing a set oflarge teeth. "Come this evening to plead for your forgiveness."

  "I will not fail, madame."

  Meantime Lieutenant Feraud, splendid in his new dolman and the extremelypolished boots of his calling, sat on a chair within a foot of the couchand, one hand propped on his thigh, with the other twirled his moustacheto a point without uttering a sound. At a significant glance fromD'Hubert he rose without alacrity and followed him into the recess of awindow.

  "What is it you want with me?" he asked in a tone of annoyance, whichastonished not a little the other. Lieutenant D'Hubert could not imaginethat in the innocence of his heart and simplicity of his conscienceLieutenant Feraud took a view of his duel in which neither remorsenor yet a rational apprehension of consequences had any place. ThoughLieutenant Feraud had no clear recollection how the quarrel hadoriginated (it was begun in an establishment where beer and wine aredrunk late at night), he had not the slightest doubt of being himselfthe outraged party. He had secured two experienced friends or hisseconds. Everything had been done according to the rules governing thatsort of adventure. And a duel is obviously fought for the purpose ofsomeone being at least hurt if not killed outright. The civilian gothurt. That also was in order. Lieutenant Feraud was perfectly tranquil.But Lieutenant D'Hubert mistook this simple attitude for affectation andspoke with some heat.

  "I am directed by the general to give you the order to go at once toyour quarters and remain there under close arrest."

  It was now the turn of Lieutenant Feraud to be astonished.

  "What the devil are you telling me there?" he murmured faintly, and fellinto such profound wonder that he could only follow mechanically themotions of Lieutenant D'Hubert. The two officers--one tall, with aninteresting face and a moustache the colour of ripe corn, the othershort and sturdy, with a hooked nose and a thick crop of black, curlyhair--approached the mistress of the house to take their leave. Madamede Lionne, a woman of eclectic taste, smiled upon these armed young menwith impartial sensibility and an equal share of interest. Madame deLionne took her delight in the infinite variety of the human species.All the eyes in the drawing-room followed the departing officers, onestrutting, the other striding, with curiosity. When the door had closedafter them one or two men who had already heard of the duel imparted theinformation to the sylphlike ladies, who received it with little shrieksof humane concern.

  Meantime the two hussars walked side by side, Lieutenant Feraud tryingto fathom the hidden reason of things which in this instance eluded thegrasp of his intellect; Lieutenant D'Hubert feeling bored by the part hehad to play; because the general's instructions were that he should seepersonally that Lieutenant Feraud carried out his orders to the letterand at once.

  "The chief seems to know this animal," he thought, eyeing his companion,whose round face, the round eyes and even the twisted-up jet blacklittle moustache seemed animated by his mental exasperation beforethe incomprehensible. And aloud he observed rather reproachfully, "Thegeneral is in a devilish fury with you."

  Lieutenant Feraud stopped short on the edge of the pavement and criedin the accents of unmistakable sincerity: "What on earth for?" Theinnocence of the fiery Gascon soul was depicted in the manner in whichhe seized his head in both his hands as if to prevent it bursting withperplexity.

  "For the duel," said Lieutenant D'Hubert curtly. He was annoyed greatlyby this sort of perverse fooling.

  "The duel! The..."

  Lieutenant Feraud passed from one paroxysm of astonishment into another.He dropped his hands and walked on slowly trying to reconcile thisinformation with the state of his own feelings. It was impossible. Heburst out indignantly:

  "Was I to let that sauerkraut-eating civilian wipe his boots on theuniform of the Seventh Hussars?"

  Lieutenant D'Hubert could not be altogether unsympathetic toward thatsentiment. This little fellow is a lunatic, he thought to himself, butthere is something in what he says.

  "Of course, I don't know how far you were justified," he saidsoothingly. "And the general himself may not be exactly informed. A lotof people have been deafening him with their lamentations."

  "Ah, he is not exactly informed," mumbled Lieutenant Feraud, walkingfaster and faster as his choler at the injustice of his fate began torise. "He is not exactly.... And he orders me under close arrest withGod knows what afterward."

  "Don't excite yourself like this," remonstrated the other. "That youngman's people are very influential, you know, and it looks bad enoughon the face of it. The general had to take notice of their complaint atonce. I don't think he means to be over-severe with you. It is best foryou to be kept out of sight for a while."

  "I am very much obliged to the general," muttered Lieutenant Feraudthrough his teeth.

  "And perhaps you would say I ought to be grateful to you too for thetrouble you have taken to hunt me up in the drawin
g-room of a ladywho..."

  "Frankly," interrupted Lieutenant D'Hubert, with an innocent laugh, "Ithink you ought to be. I had no end of trouble to find out where youwere. It wasn't exactly the place for you to disport yourself in underthe circumstances. If the general had caught you there making eyes atthe goddess of the temple.... Oh, my word!... He hates to be botheredwith complaints against his officers, you know. And it looked uncommonlylike sheer bravado."

  The two officers had arrived now at the street door of LieutenantFeraud's lodgings. The latter turned toward his companion. "LieutenantD'Hubert," he said, "I have something to say to you which can't be saidvery well in the street. You can't