Rupert Greppel paused, dumbfounded:
“I do not think you understand,” he said. “Lord Montagu Askew challenges you to fight him.”
“Tell Lord Montagu Askew from me,” said Noll, “that I only brawl with men. Good-morning.”
The whisperings at the clubs are said to have hit Lord Montagu Askew harder than a pistol-bullet; but Lord Montagu, from lack of experience, is not an authority on being hit with pistol-bullets. He never takes part in ungentlemanly encounters where people are hit. Indeed, he maintains a wondrous silence, except that he challenged Noll; and the jade-handled cane has joined the ancestors.
CHAPTER LXXXV
Wherein a Man of the World commits the Indiscretion of putting his Experiences into Writing
“Dear Noll,” writes Horace Malahide about this time, “I have a son. He speaks English as yet with a strong foreign accent—but lack of experience may have more than something to do with it. If you come, I’ll let you play with him.
I live in a whirl of tangled emotions in these days.