"Oh! no; that is not likely. You know my method: 'Monsieur, you have injured my friend, and—'"
"Yes, I know it."
"And then: 'Monsieur, I have horses below,' I carry him off before he can have spoken to any one."
"Will he allow himself to be carried off like that?"
"I should think so! I should like to see it fail. It would be the first time, if it did. It is true, though, that the young men of the present day—Bah! I would carry him off bodily, if that were all," and Porthos, adding gesture to speech, lifted Raoul and the chair he was sitting on off the ground, and carried them round the room.
"Very good," said Raoul, laughing. "All we have to do is to state the grounds of the quarrel to M. de Saint-Aignan."
"Well, but that is done, it seems."
"No, my dear M. de Valon, the usage of the present day requires that the cause of the quarrel should be explained."
"Very good. Tell me what it is, then."
"The fact is—"