t last; "go away, sir, go away!"

"Go away, eh?" jeered Tipping. "Who are you to tell me to go away? Go
away yourself!"

"Certainly," said Paul, only too happy to oblige. But he found himself
prevented by a ring of excited backers.

"Don't funk it, Dick!" cried some, forgetting recent ill-feeling in the
necessity for partisanship. "Go in and settle him as you did that last
time. I'll second you. You can do it!"

"Don't hit each other in the face," pleaded Dulcie, who had got upon a
bench and was looking down into the ring--not, if the truth must be
told, without a certain pleasurable excitement in the feeling that it
was all about her.

And now Mr. Bultitude discovered that he was seriously expected to fight
this great hulking boy, and that the sole reason for any disagreement
was an utterly unfounded jealousy respecting this little girl Dulcie. He
had not a grain of chivalry in his disposition--chivalry being an
eminently unpractical virtue--and naturally he saw no advantage in
letting himself be mauled for the sake of a child younger than his own
daughter.

Dulcie's appeal enraged Tipping, who took it as addressed solely to
himself. "You ought to be glad to stick up for her," he said between his
teeth. "I'll mash you for this--see if I don't!"

Paul thought he saw his way clear to disabuse Tipping of his mistaken
idea. "Are you proposing," he asked politely, "to--to 'mash' me on
account of that little girl there on the seat?"

"You'll soon see," growled Tipping. "Shut your head, and come on!"

"No, but I want to know," persisted Mr. Bultitude. "Because," he said
with a sickly attempt at jocularity which delighted none, "you see, I
don't want to be mashed. I'm not a potato. If I understand you aright,
you want to fight me because you think me likely to interfere with your
claim to that little girl's--ah--affections?"

"That's it," said Tipping gruffly; "so you'd better waste no more words
about it, and come on."

"But I don't care about coming on," protested Paul earnestly. "It's all
a mistake. I've no doubt she's a very nice little girl, but I assure
you, my good boy, I've no desire to stand in your way for one instant.
She's nothing to me--nothing at all! I give her up to you. Take her,
young fellow, with my blessing! There, now, that's all settled
comfortably--eh?"

He was just looking round with a self-satisfied and relieved air, when
he began to be aware that his act of frank unselfishness was not a