Some of the smaller baggage had been placed by Darvon in a net suspended from the top of the diligence; the soldier pretended that it incommoded him, and wished it removed. Gontran refused to do it.
"You have decided it shall remain where it is?" cried the soldier, after a discussion in which he had grown more and more animated.
"Decidedly!" replied Darvon.
"Very well. I will get rid of it by the coach-door," replied the young man, while extending his hand toward the net.
Gontran seized the hand, and said, "Take care what you do, sir," in a changed voice. "Ever since you came in here, you have tried to make me lose my patience; your whole course has been one of abuse and tyranny, but you may as well understand I am not the man to put up with your tyranny."
"Is this a challenge?" asked the soldier, throwing on Gontran a disdainful look.
"By no means," interrupted Grugel, annoyed by the turn affairs had taken; "my cousin merely wished you to observe—"
"I don't accept the observations of snarlers."
"And snarlers don't accept your insolence," replied Gontran.
At this word insolence the soldier shuddered, a deep redness suffused his features.