The Duke di Marina, with a courteous gesture, addressed me: "You will, of course, honor us by disclosing the name of the fair lady whom we are prepared to toast with all befitting reverence?"
"I was about to ask the same question," said Ferrari, in hoarse accents--his lips were dry, and he appeared to have some difficulty in speaking. "Possibly we are not acquainted with her?"
"On the contrary," I returned, eying him steadily with a cool smile. "You all know her name well! Illustrissimi Signori!" and my voice rang out clearly--"to the health of my betrothed wife, the Contessa Romani!"
"Liar!" shouted Ferrari--and with all a madman's fury he dashed his brimming glass of champagne full in my face! In a second the wildest scene of confusion ensued. Every man left his place at table and surrounded us. I stood erect and perfectly calm--wiping with my handkerchief the little runlets of wine that dripped from my clothing--the glass had fallen at my feet, striking the table as it fell and splitting itself to atoms.
"Are you drunk or mad, Ferrari?" cried Captain de Hamal, seizing him by the arm--"do you know what you have done?"
Ferrari glared about him like a tiger at bay--his face was flushed and swollen like that of a man in apoplexy--the veins in his forehead stood out like knotted cords--his breath came and went hard as though he had been running. He turned his rolling eyes upon me. "Damn you!" he muttered through his clinched teeth--then suddenly raising his voice to a positive shriek, he cried, "I will have your blood if I have to tear your heart for it!"--and he made an effort to spring upon me. The Marquis D'Avencourt quietly caught his other arm and held it as in a vise.
"Not so fast, not so fast, mon cher" he said, coolly. "We are not murderers, we! What devil possesses you, that you offer such unwarrantable insult to our host?"
"Ask HIM!" replied Ferrari, fiercely, struggling to release himself from the grasp of the two Frenchmen--"he knows well enough! Ask HIM!"
All eyes were turned inquiringly upon me. I was silent.
"The noble conte is really not bound to give any explanation," remarked Captain Freccia--"even admitting he were able to do so."
"I assure you, my friends," I said, "I am ignorant of the cause of this fracas, except that this young gentleman had pretensions himself to the hand of the lady whose name affects him so seriously!"