Publisher's Synopsis
The story starts before the French revolution. It's 1783 and wealthy Paul D�roul�de has offended the young Vicomte de Marny by speaking disrepctfully of his latest infatuation, Ad�le de Monterch�ri. D�roul�de had not intended to get into the quarrel but has a tendency to blunder into things -- "no doubt a part of the inheritance bequeathed to him by his bourgeois ancestry." Incensed at the slur on Ad�le, who he sees as a paragon of virtue, the Vicomte challenges D�roul�de to a duel, a fight which D�roul�de does not want -- for he knows and respects the boy's father, the Duc de Marny.
