Topp. May the devil take your customers from first to last. (Tick laughs immoderately. Topp furious.) If you don’t stop your laughing, I’ll knock every tooth out of your head.
Spratt. His conduct is very ungentlemanly.
Topp. In the extreme! In the extreme! I can’t fight him. He is no gentleman.
Tick. (Aside.) Indeed! I’ll try a bluff. (To Topp.) I insist on fighting.
Topp. You insist! I’ll accommodate you, sir, if the code will possibly allow it. To begin, sir, you are in trade. Old honorable house, may I ask? (Tick laughs.) You are laughing again, young man. To judge by your conduct the house is scarcely respectable. (Tick laughs immoderately. Topp jerks off coat.) Now, sir, take your choice. Stop laughing or be knocked down without ceremony.
Tick. I beg pardon! My laugh goes off very easy. It’s a hair-trigger laugh.
Topp. Don’t let it go off again. I warn you. Head of house or member of firm?
Tick. Neither! Traveling salesman.
Topp. Traveling salesman! That would never do. (To Spratt.) Would it?