"It's no trifle," added the colonel, oracularly. The other waited for a
long while before he murmured:
"Indeed, sir!"
"No trifle," repeated the colonel, looking straight before him. "I've,
however, forbidden D'Hubert either to send to or receive a challenge
from Feraud for the next twelve months."
He had imagined this prohibition to save the prestige a colonel should
have. The result of it was to give an official seal to the mystery
surrounding this deadly quarrel. Lieut. D'Hubert repelled by an
impassive silence all attempts to worm the truth out of him. Lieut.
Feraud, secretly uneasy at first, regained his assurance as time went
on. He disguised his ignorance of the meaning of the imposed truce by
slight sardonic laughs, as though he were amused by what he intended to
keep to himself. "But what will you do?" his chums used to ask him. He
contented himself by replying "Qui vivra verra" with a little truculent
air. And everybody admired his discretion.
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