"This must be considered as having been concluded," said Mr. Marchdale.
"No!" said Henry.
"And wherefore not?"
"Because I have not received his fire."
"Heaven forbid you should."
"I may not with honour quit the ground without another fire."
"Under ordinary circumstances there might be some shadow of an excuse for your demand; but as it is there is none. You have neither honour nor credit to gain by such an encounter, and, certainly, you can gain no object."
"How are we to decide this affair? Am I considered absolved from the accusation under which I lay, of cowardice?" inquired Sir Francis Varney, with a cold smile.
"Why, as for that," said the admiral, "I should as soon expect credit for fighting behind a wall, as with a man that I couldn't hit any more than the moon."
"Henry; let me implore you to quit this scene; it can do no good."