"Have I not a right?"
"But give some facts to support your theory."
"I have not said that I have formed any."
"Then it is a systematic opposition, just for the sake of contradicting me, as you do in whist."
"Nothing is further from my thoughts, I assure you. Your reasoning appeared to me to be too peremptory, that is all."
"In what way, if you please, I am curious to know?"
"It would take too long to tell you. Eleven o'clock is striking. I will content myself with offering you a bet. Your copy of Pliny against my Quintilian, that you have not judged rightly, and that the child is not Irish."
"You know that I do not like to bet," said the doctor, softened by his unconquerable good humor. "But I shall take so much pleasure in your discomfiture that I accept your offer."
"Well, then it is a settled affair. How much time do you expect to take for your researches?"
"A few months will suffice, I hope, but I have said two years to Hersebom, in order to be sure that no efforts were wanting."