“Then will you tell me, identically, who would inflict on you the penalties of this imaginary dishonor? Who would pronounce you disgraced and point at you as a coward?”
“Why, Wilson, and Fred Stanly, and Jack Smith, and Jim Brown, and every body.”
“What are they?”
“Gentlemen.”
“What is a gentleman?”
“One who has, or had, or expects to have a plenty of cash—who has no particular vocation—who carries a rattan, wears long hair, and goes to all the fashionable parties.”
“I have but two questions more to ask: supposing you are killed in this duel: what would be the consequences to others?”
“My mother would die of a broken heart; and Kate—God knows what would become of her!”
“Supposing, on the contrary, you should kill your antagonist?”
“If I were not arrested and hanged according to law, I should be obliged to quit the country and bear, ever, in my bosom the remorse and on my brow the mark of a murderer.”