Polyhymnia could not understand this sudden craze for stilts. She pressed Peele for an explanation.
"I'm sure you're at the bottom of it," said Polyhymnia, with emphasis. "You are the worst boy I ever knew—and the handsomest," she added, weakly.
"If you look in your glass," said Peele, "I think you'll find I'm not at the bottom of it all. I wish you wouldn't speak to that beast Gough."
"Gough is full of good points," said Polyhymnia, angrily.
"So are a lot of other beasts," retorted Peele, more than ever decided that the combat should be waged to the death.
A bogus match was played under the Doctor's nose one afternoon, in which Peele's followers got decidedly the worst of it. Gough, emboldened by triumph, proposed that Peele and himself should settle their differences in Homeric combat then and there.
"I fight," retorted Peele, "when there is no chance of interruption."
This remark made the matter irrevocable, and the combat was fixed to take place on the following Saturday afternoon, when it was known that the Doctor would be away.
On the appointed afternoon all the boys in the school were drawn up into two armies mounted on stilts.