BOOK, inscribed by Maupassant

Robert Baldick states in The Duel. A History of Duelling (1970), that “The painter Henri Gervex had quarrelled with the Baron de Vaux, who, being the offended party and knowing Gervex to be a good swordsman, had announced his attention of calling him out for a pistol duel. Hearing of this and not wanting his friend to be killed or wounded, Maupassant hurried round to Gastinne-Renette’s shooting gallery, where he spent the morning firing at a number of target cards, scoring bull’s-eye after bull’seye. He then took the cards home and scattered them casually on a table in his smoking room. The Baron de Vaux, who came to lunch with him that day, saw them and expressed his admiration at the writer’s fantastic skills as a marksman. ‘But those aren’t my cards’, said Maupassant. ‘They are the work of Henri Gervex. He shoots at Gastinne’s every morning.’ The baron changed colour, and the next day Gervex learned to his relief that the threatened duel had been called off.”

Vicaire V:612.

See description.