"
"You will have to fight now, sir!" said the youth, trying to brazen
off by his discourtesy increasing suspicion that he had "caught a
Tartar."
"Of course, of course. And of course, too, I fight you afterwards."
"I--I, sir? I am Mr. Trebooze's friend, his second, sir. You do not
seem to understand, sir!"
"Pardon me, young gentleman," said Tom, in a very quiet, determined
voice; "it is I who have a right to tell you that you do not
understand in such matters as these. I had fought my man, and more
than one of them, while you were eating blackberries in a short
jacket."
"What do you mean, sir?" quoth the youth in fury; and began swearing a
little.
"Simple fact. Are you not about twenty-three years old?"
"What is that to you, sir?"
"No business of mine, of course. You may be growing into your second
childhood for aught I care: but if, as I guess, you are about
twenty-three, I, as I know, am thirty-six: then I fought my first duel
when you were five years old, and my tenth, I should say, when you
were fifteen; at which time, I suppose, you were not ashamed either of
the jacket or the blackberries."
"You will find me a man now, sir, at all events," said Creed, justly
wroth at what was, after all, a sophism; for if a man is not a man at
twenty, he never will be one.
"_Tant mieux_. You know, I suppose, that as the challenged, I have the
choice of weapons?"
"Of course, sir," said Creed, in an off-hand generous tone, because he
did not very clearly know.
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