KERCHIVAL. I hope they won't wait for breakfast until the bombardment begins.
GERTRUDE. I'll bet you an embroidered cigar-case, Lieutenant, against a box of gloves, that it will begin in less than an hour.
KERCHIVAL. Done! You will lose the bet. But you shall have the gloves; and one of the hands that go inside them shall be—[Taking one of her hands; she withdraws it.
GERTRUDE. My own—until some one wins it. You don't believe that
General Beauregard will open fire on Fort Sumter this morning?
KERCHIVAL. No; I don't.
GERTRUDE. Everything is ready.
KERCHIVAL. It's so much easier to get everything ready to do a thing than it is to do it. I have been ready a dozen times, this very night, to say to you, Miss Gertrude, that I—that I—[Pauses.
GERTRUDE. [Looking down and tapping skirt with her whip.] Well?
KERCHIVAL. But I didn't.
GERTRUDE. [Glancing up at him suddenly.] I dare say, General
Beauregard has more nerve than you have.