Pepito. [Aside.] If that's the way he discourses to Teodora, heaven help poor Don Julian. [Aloud.] I suppose last night's verses dealt with the subject.
Ernest. Yes, they did.
Pepito. How can you waste your time so coolly, and sit there so calm, doing nothing, when in another hour you will be measuring swords with Nebreda, who, for all his dandy's cane, is a man when put upon his mettle? Wouldn't it be saner and wiser to practise fencing instead of expounding questions of verse and rhyme? You look so mighty cool that I almost doubt if you regard your meeting with the viscount as serious.
Ernest. No,—for a good reason. If I kill him, the world gains; if he kill me, I gain.
Pepito. Well, that's good.
Ernest. Don't say any more about it.
Pepito. [Aside.] Now I must warily find out. [Approaches him and speaks in a low voice.] Is it for to-day?
Ernest. Yes, to-day.
Pepito. Outside the town?
Ernest. No, there's no time for that. Besides, we wish to keep it quiet.