“I am willing to do that if he will apologise for the terms he used in connection with my mother.”
“Ah!” said the gallant Captain, “the young gentleman is coming to reason.”
“He also demands that you should hand over the note you received from the lady.”
“That I certainly shall not do,” he answered; and drawing the card from his pocket, he tore it into fragments, unread.
Captain Justice bowed and left the room. In a few minutes he returned, and, addressing Mr. Alston and Ernest, said:
“Mr. Kershaw is not satisfied with what you offer to do. He declines to apologise for any expression that he may have used with reference to your mother, and he now wishes you to choose between signing an apology, which I shall dictate, or meeting him to-morrow morning. You must remember that we are in Guernsey, where you cannot insult a man on the payment of forty shillings.”
Of course, this view was an entirely incorrect one. Although Guernsey has a political constitution of its own, many of its laws being based upon the old Norman-French customs, and judicial proceedings being carried on in French, &c., it is quite as criminal an act to fight a duel there as in England, as Captain Justice himself afterwards found out to his cost. But they none of them knew that.
Ernest felt the blood run to his heart. He understood now what Captain Justice meant. He answered simply:
“I shall be very happy to meet my cousin in whatever place and way you and Mr. Alston may agree upon;” and then he returned to his chair, and gave himself up to the enjoyment of his pipe and an entirely new set of sensations.
Captain Justice gazed after him pityingly. “I am sorry for him,” he said to Mr. Alston. “Kershaw is, I believe, a good shot with pistols. I suppose you will choose pistols. It would be difficult to get swords in such a hurry. He is a fine young fellow. Took it coolly, by George! Well, I don’t think that he will trouble the world much longer.”