hour has arrived."

"But what would you do now?"

"Come with me, and you shall learn."

"Very well, my carriage is below. Will you direct the servants?"

Maltravers nodded, gave his orders to the careless footman, and the two
friends were soon driving through the less known and courtly regions of
the giant city. It was then that Maltravers concisely stated to Danvers
the fraud that had been practised by Cesarini.

"You will go with me now," concluded Maltravers, "to his house. To do
him justice, he is no coward; he has not shrunk from giving me his
address, nor will he shrink from the atonement I demand. I shall wait
below while you arrange our meeting--at daybreak for to-morrow."
Danvers was astonished and even appalled by the discovery made to him.
There was something so unusual and strange in the whole affair. But
neither his experience, nor his principles of honour, could suggest any
alternative to the plan proposed. For though not regarding the cause of
quarrel in the same light as Maltravers, and putting aside all question
as to the right of the latter to constitute himself the champion of the
betrothed, or the avenger of the dead, it seemed clear to the soldier
that a man whose confidential letter had been garbled by another for the
purpose of slandering his truth and calumniating his name, had no option
but contempt, or the sole retribution (wretched though it be) which the
customs of the higher class permit to those who live within its pale.
But contempt for a wrong that a sorrow so tragic had followed--was
/that/ option in human philosophy?