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as an honour.’ I said this, though I felt almost dismayed, so
greatly was I impressed from the first moment by the ap-
pearance of this man. For though other people had listened
to me with interest and attention, no one had come to me
before with such a serious, stern, and concentrated expres-
sion. And now he had come to see me in my own rooms. He
sat down.
‘You are, I see, a man of great strength of character’ he
said; ‘as you have dared to serve the truth, even when by do-
ing so you risked incurring the contempt of all.’
‘Your praise is, perhaps, excessive,’ I replied.
‘No, it’s not excessive,’ he answered; ‘believe me, such a
course of action is far more difficult than you think. It is
that which has impressed me, and it is only on that account
that I have come to you,’ he continued. ‘Tell me, please, that
is if you are not annoyed by my perhaps unseemly curios-
ity, what were your exact sensations, if you can recall them,
at the moment when you made up your mind to ask for-
giveness at the duel. Do not think my question frivolous; on
the contrary, I have in asking the question a secret motive
of my own, which I will perhaps explain to you later on, if
it is God’s will that we should become more intimately ac-
quainted.’
All the while he was speaking, I was looking at him
straight into the face and I felt all at once a complete trust
in him and great curiosity on my side also, for I felt that
there was some strange secret in his soul.
‘You ask what were my exact sensations at the moment
when I asked my opponent’s forgiveness,’ I answered; ‘but