arden felt a similar challenge was about to be extended by the white-skinned , fancily dressed man arguing with him there in the reddened shield corridor ( in france , a slap making contact with the opponents face was not always required to initiate a duel to the death - the mere action of waving the glove in the opponents face was sufficiently provocative if both men were either enraged soldiers going awol , ennui-ridden poets or , as is the case with most men , simply in possession of two competing heads , of which the lower-positioned , less talkative , but far more impulsive head , especially when engorged with lust-filled blood , literally called the shots ) .