"
I might not be outdone, so I bowed back at him. "Thank you," said I;
"and I also beg your pardon and withdraw my adjectives."
"_Merci_, Your Highness," he answered. "Let us consider the matter
closed?"
"With pleasure," said I.
"And I shall hope to have the honor of crossing swords--foils, I mean,
with you, some day," he said meaningly.
"The hope is intensely mutual, my dear Duke," I answered.
He drew himself up to attention and saluted stiffly. I returned it in
kind.
"And, with Your Highness's permission," I said, "I shall ask you to
refrain from communicating with Mrs. Spencer. I appreciate your offer
but, upon second thought, I doubt the wisdom of it."
"As you wish, monsieur," said he; "as you wish."
XX
A TRICK OF FENCE
After Lotzen had gone, and I was able to do a bit of reflecting, I was
pretty well convinced that he had got about as much out of me as I had
out of him. Of course, our mutual distrust and dislike were now openly
avowed; but we had known it quite as well before--just as he had been
aware of my designs on the Crown and my partiality for the Princess,
and, I, of his purpose to defeat me for both. He had, to use a
military term, made a reconnoissance in force; and I had tried to meet
him in kind and to prevent him uncovering my exact position.
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