"I have the honour, Monsieur, to request from you the name of a friend."
"Of a friend? What for?"
"Ah, Monsieur--to arrange the preliminaries!"
"What preliminaries?"
"Is it that Monsieur amuses himself?"
"Is it possible that you suppose that I am going to fight a duel?"
"Monsieur intends, then, to offer an explanation to my friend?"
"M. Berigny, I do not wish to say to you anything uncourteous, or anything unworthy an English gentleman; but I do beg you to believe that, because you choose to be an idiot, and your friend chooses to be an idiot, it does not follow that I choose to be an idiot, too."
"Monsieur!"
"One other observation. I have not seen much of you, M. Beringy, but that little has not disposed me to see more. May I therefore ask you--to leave my studio?"