“Nine month.”
“Still too long.”
“Zen I try to do eet in six month!” desperately said the fencing master. “In six month I have you so you can toy with me—so you can beat me at my own game. I know how to teach you to do that. You doubt eet?”
“Well, I don’t know about——”
“Eet can be done. You know ze man who teach ze actor to act on ze stage? He make of him ze great actor, still perhaps ze teacher he cannot act at all. He know how eet should be done. I am better teacher than zat, for I can fence; but I know ze way to teach you more zan I can accomplish. You have ze physique, ze brain, ze nerve, ze heart, ze youth—everything. In six month I do it.”
“But I could not think of giving six months of my time to such as acquirement.”
“You make reputation and fortune if you follow eet up.”
“And that is the very thing I could not do, professor.”
“Why not? You take ze interest in ze amateur sport. You follow eet.”
“Not all the time, professor. I have other business.”