“I don't think I could have brought myself to it.”
“I could, I promise you.”
“And there 's an end of a man after such a thing.”
“Yes, if he fails. If he's overtaken and thrashed, I grant you he not only loses the game, but gets the cards in his face, besides. But why fail? Nobody fails when he wants to win,—when he determines to win. When I shot De Courcy at Asterabad—”
“Don't bring up that affair, at least, as one of precedent, Duff. I neither desire to be tried for a capital felony, nor to have committed one.”
“Capital fiddlesticks! As if men did not fight duels every day of the week; the difference between guilt and innocence being that one fellow's hand shook, and the other's was steady. De Courcy would have 'dropped' me, if I'd have Jet him.”
“And so you would have carried her off, Master Duff?” said Stapylton, slowly.
“Yes; if she had the pot of money you speak of, and no Lord Chancellor for a guardian. I 'd have made the thing sure at once.”
“The money she will and must have; so much is certain.”
“Then I 'd have made the remainder just as certain.”