A LEFT-HANDED JOB.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 1947, 2 June 1874, Page 3

A LEFT-HANDED JOB.

(Concluded.) " Of course you'll say I wa9 a confounded snob for listening, and I don't deny it ; but, at the same time, i could no more help it than I could help breathing. Through the leaves I could see them standing on the sidewalk, and thosgh they spoke low I heard every word. 'Mr Montfort,' says she, ' I have a great favour to ask of you ; although people call you ungallant, I cannot believe that you will be eo unkind aB to refuse me. Will you do what I ask ?' " Talk of witchcraft ! you should have heard her voice and seen the look she gave 1 It was enough to driye a man stark mad ; and I know it made me tingle all over, as if I'd fallen into a bed of nettles. " ' I await your commands,' said Montfort as coolly as if he had been reading Euclid. (I couldn't have done it in his place, I know that.) " f Well,' saya she, ' I find that Mr Le Vaillant — that young Frenchman whom you met here the other way — has been showing to all his friends a likeness of myself which I was foolish enough to give him, and has the insolence to boast of it, as if— as if I had— in short, as if more importance might be attached to it than it really deserves.' (The way she did that little bit of bashfulness would have made her fortune on the stage.) ' You are the only man whom I can trust to check his impertinence, for all the rest seem afraid of him. May I count upon you to defend my reputation ?' " She took both his hands in hers (I suppose to add emphasis to her petition) and cast her eyes on the ground. It was well that she did, for there came over Montfort's face such a look of killing contempt as made me fairly shake. He drew himself up as if he could have trampled her under his feet, and for that moment he looked really splendid — just as I had seen him look when I chaffed him about being in love with her the morning after the ball. " ' lam at your service,' said he, bowing, and with that he went away without another word. As for me, I stood like a fool for good five minutes before I could recollect myself, the whole thing took me so aback. This was worse than I had ever dreamed of. All that I ever bargained for was a little flare-up between Montfort and the Frenchman, which would blow over and leave all clear again ; but here was a far more serious business. Whether the DeCourcy had got tired of having Le Vaillant always hanging after her and wanted to get rid of him, or whether it was only her confounded vanity that was tickled at the idea of setting men fighting about her, I can't tell ; but I've always thought (though it seems a horrible thing to say of any woman) that she was riled at Montfort for not bowing down to her as every one else did, and that she meant to punish him by getting him knocked on the head. Look at it each way I would, it was a very bad business. Apart from my liking for Montfort, I couldn't abide the thought of an Englishman being killed by a Frenchman, and the whole town crowing over it, as they'd be sure to do. And yet how was Ito stop it ? I and the other two men were invited that very day to dine with some Virginian bigwig (Fortescue, I think his name was), and then to go to a ball that Colonel DeCourcy was giving the sime evening; so that even if they missed each other at one place they were sure to meet at the other. Altogether, it really seemed as if the powers of mischief had contrived it, and I went home feeling bad all over. " Well, to Fortescue's I went, and didn't manage to get near Montfort till dinner was done, but when we turned out to have our smoke in the garden (a famous big place, with a fountain in the middle, and dark shrubberies all round hung with coloured lamps, just like a scene in a lheatre), I got hold of him and drew him into a conversation, meaning at least to stick by him all the evening, in case of anything happening. Uut just then, as ill luck would have it, who should come swaggering past but that heast Le Vaillant, with his chorus of worshippers about him, and, of course, he must bring out Miss DeCourcy's likeness, and begin bragging about it before them all. "' Thus it is that we Frenchmen win the day,' he said, in his boastful way, ' every thing is possible to those who dare ! It is only those who dare. It is only those who hang back that get nothing, like those English cowards in the Crimea !' " I jumped up like a shot at that, you may be sure, but Montfort was before me. With one stride he was through the circle, and confronted the Frenchtr.aa, looking him full in the eyes. " ' Did I understand monsieur to say,' asked he bowing, ' that the English, arc , cowards ?' " ' I did,' answerd ibe other, looking up at him insolently. " ' You lie, then !"• says Montfort, and gave him a slap in the face with his open hand that echoed all over the garden like a pistol six t. " Then there was a raw, if you like ! Every 1 (■■•!y ran forward at once, shot: ting and i c earning. In un instant the two had their coats off, and were standing face to face, quch with a small sword in his hand, on the bit of smooth turf, beside the fountain.

8 It was evident, as soon as they began, that I Le Vaillant was the better of the two and - in a few minutes (just as I had i'r - Moutfort got a thrust through the .nu, - below the elbow, that made him drop his 1 weapon. Of course, all Le Vaillant's chains i shouted for joy, but how they stared when, s Montfort coolly twisted his handkerchief 5 round his right arm, drew the knot with his • teeth, took up the sword in his left hand, . and said, quietly, ' En garde, monsieur !' " It was then, for the first time, that tho i Frenchman began to look disturbed, and certainly there was something awful in this dogged, bloodthirsty persistency, which no i pain or danger could shake. Two or three > of Le Vaillant's party tried to protest, but the others overruled them, and the fight began , again. The two faces were a sight. Le Vaillant looked like a wolf iu a trap— full of a i kind of frightened fury ; Montfort's face i was quiet as marble, with a look of grim ; satisfaction on it as if he was sure of his man at last. And so, indeed, ho wa9. Iu those days the French schools didn't generally . teach their men how to meet a left-handed - attack, and Le Vaillant, who had never seen anything of the sort before, was fairly puzzled. His breath began to fail, his hand shook, and at last, as he overreached himself in making a thrust, Montfort sprang in, and ' went clean through him, from breast t> back. Taking up tho minature, he flung his coat over his shoulders, and flew out of the garden like a wildcat. I followed him as hard as I could pelt (you know I couldn't tell what he , might do in a mad fit that seemed to be upon' him), and I fell you that in all my life I never had such a run. He never slackened onco till he got to Colonel De Courcy's, where tho ball was just at its height, and there he bolted through the gate, burst into the ballroom, right through the midst of the dancers, and rushing up to where Miss De Courcy was standing, flung the miniature at her feet."