“You are a little fool, aren’t you?” she said.
It is discouraging for a man about to risk his life for a lady’s sake to be addressed in such terms. It was a time for guerdons and not rebukes.
“In what manner am I a fool, Blanche?”
“Challenging May to a duel, like that. Everyone knows about it, and is laughing about it, too. Now, I suppose you are going to walk home as if nothing has happened. A nice idiot it’ll make me look, and you’ll be the laughing-stock of the theatre for ever.”
“I do not understand you.”
“Why couldn’t you punch his head, like a man, and leave it at that?”
“I do not consider to do so would be punishment enough.”
“Better than all this silly talking.”
“There has been very little talking; indeed, I ought not to be talking now. There is not much time before the—the—appointment.”
Blanche’s eyes sought his face with quick interrogation.