“Afraid!”
“I see you have no mind to marry. Well, then, we will fight! I like that better.”
“I will fight both you and your brother, 82 make any engagement you wish; but if the fair name of Miss Anneys is in danger, I have a prior engagement to marry her. I will keep it first. Afterward I am at your service, Squire, yours and your brother’s; for I tell you plainly that I shall leave my wife at the church door and never see her again.”
“I care not how soon you leave her; the sooner the better. Will the eleventh of this month suit you?”
“Make it the fifteenth. To what church will you bring my fair bride?”
“Keep your scoffing for a fitter time. If you look in that way again, I will strike the smile off your lips with a hand that will leave you little smiling in the future.” And he passed his walking-stick to his left, and doubled his large right hand with an ominous readiness.
“We may even quarrel like gentlemen, Mr. Anneys.”
“Then don’t you laugh like a blackguard, that’s all.”
“Answer me civilly. At what church 83 shall I meet Miss Anneys, and at what hour on the fifteenth?”
“At Aspatria Church, at eleven o’clock.”