Agapit pulled up the horse with a jerk, and Rose immediately sprang to the road and ran up to the young man, who had plainly been fighting and was about to fight again.
Vesper slipped from his seat and stood by the wheel.
"Do not follow her," exclaimed Agapit; "they will not hurt her. They would beat you."
"I know it."
"She is my cousin, thou impatient one," pursued Agapit, irritably. "I would not allow her to be insulted."
"I know that, too," said Vesper, calmly, and he watched the young men springing off the fences and hurrying up to Rose, who had taken the pugilist by the hand.
"Isidore," she said, sorrowfully, and as unaffectedly as if they had been alone, "hast thou been fighting again?"
"It is her second cousin," growled Agapit; "that is why she interferes."
"Écoute-moi, écoute-moi, Rose" (listen to me), stammered the young man in the blood-stained shirt. "They all set upon me. I was about to be massacred. I struck out but a little, and I got some taps here and there. I was drunk at first, but I am not very drunk now."