"No. It cannot be. But it can be by evil tongues. It will be said that
a lieutenant of the 4th Hussars, afraid of meeting his adversary, is
hiding behind his colonel. And that would be worse than hiding behind
a haystack--for the good of the service. I cannot afford to do that,
Colonel."
"Nobody would dare to say anything of the kind," began the colonel very
fiercely, but ended the phrase on an uncertain note. The bravery of
Lieut. D'Hubert was well known. But the colonel was well aware that
the duelling courage, the single combat courage, is rightly or wrongly
supposed to be courage of a special sort. And it was eminently
necessary that an officer of his regiment should possess every kind of
courage--and prove it, too. The colonel stuck out his lower lip, and
looked far away with a peculiar glazed stare. This was the expression of
his perplexity--an expression practically unknown to his regiment; for
perplexity is a sentiment which is incompatible with the rank of colonel
of cavalry. The colonel himself was overcome by the unpleasant
novelty of the sensation. As he was not accustomed to think except on
professional matters connected with the welfare of men and horses, and
the proper use thereof on the field of glory, his intellectual efforts
degenerated into mere mental repetitions of profane language. "Mille
tonnerres! . . . Sacre nom de nom . . ." he thought.
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