“It is too long to tell at once——”
“Yes, but briefly.”
“He insulted me.”
“What did he say?”
“More things than one, but chiefly chided me about my studies. Asked me if I had learned yet how to make gold out of iron or brass or leather and said that he would collect old shoes all over the city if I would transmute them into precious metal.”
“And this upon no provocation?”
The young man hesitated, yet there was something compelling about Jan Kanty that caused men to speak the truth to him. “I did ask him if the frogs in the North country spoke Mazovian,” he answered in a rather sour voice.
“Yes, and I thought it was something like this,” spoke Jan Kanty quickly. “Why must one always aggravate these Mazovians to their swords? I warn you here and now that, swordsman though you may be, the Mazovians are much more nimble with blades than with tongue.”
“But he said further,” went on Tring in self-justification, and being unable to express himself clearly in Polish continued in German, much to Joseph’s distress, for he could not understand a word.
“Have more caution, Tring,” said the scholar at length. “Since you are not enrolled as a regular student of the university you must be even more careful in your conduct than if you were. . . . Since it is you who have first drawn your weapon, it must be you who make peace. Go to-morrow at dawn and kiss your opponent upon the cheek and sue him for pardon.”