'Oh Lord, I have such a head this morning!' his lordship answered; and

he looked by no means happy. 'I am all of a twitter! It is so confounded

early, too. See here: cannot this be--?' The gentleman who had spoken before drowned his voice. 'Will this do,

sir?' he said, raising his hat, and addressing Sir George. The party had

reached a smooth glade or lawn encompassed by thick shrubs, and to all

appearance a hundred miles from a street. A fairy-ring of verdure,

glittering with sunlight and dewdrops, and tuneful with the songs of

birds, it seemed a morsel of paradise dropped from the cool blue of

heaven. Sir George felt a momentary tightening of the throat as he

surveyed its pure brilliance, and then a sudden growing anger against

the fool who had brought him thither.

'You have no second?' said the stranger.

'No,' he answered curtly; 'I think we have witnesses enough.'

'Still--if the matter can be accommodated?' 'It can,' Soane answered, standing stiffly before them. 'But only by an

unreserved apology on Mr. Dunborough's part. He struck me. I have no

more to say.' 'I do not offer the apology,' Mr. Dunborough rejoined, with a

horse-laugh. 'So we may as well go on, Jerry. I did not come here

to talk.' 'I have brought pistols,' his second said, disregarding the sneer. 'But

my principal, though the challenged party, is willing to waive the

choice of weapons.' 'Pistols will do for me,' Sir George answered.

'One shot, at a word. If ineffective, you will take to your swords,' the

second continued; and he pushed back his wig and wiped his forehead, as

if his employment were not altogether to his taste. A duel was a fine

thing--at a distance. He wished, however, that he had some one with whom

to share the responsibility, now it was come to the point; and he cast a

peevish look at Lord Almeric. But his lordship was, as he had candidly

said, 'all of a twitter,' and offered no help.

'I suppose that I am to load,' the unlucky second continued. 'That being

so, you, Sir George, must have the choice of pistols.'

Sir George bowed assent, and, going a little aside, removed his hat,

wig, and cravat; and was about to button his coat to his throat, when he

observed that Mr. Dunborough was stripping to his shirt. Too proud not

to follow the example, though prudence suggested that the white linen

made him a fair mark, he stripped also, and in a trice the two, kicking

off their shoes, moved to the positions assigned to them; and in their

breeches and laced lawn shirts, their throats bare, confronted

one another.




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