and the size of the room had been against me so far,
but he wasn't to have all the slogging to himself in the next round if I
could help it.

In he came with one of his windmill rushes. But I was on the look-out
for him this time. I landed him with my left a regular nose-ender as he
came, and then, ducking under his left, I got him a cross-counter on
the jaw that laid him flat across his own hearthrug. He was up in an
instant, with a face like a madman.

"You swine!" he shouted. "Take those gloves off, and put your hands up!"
He was tugging at his own to get them off.

"Go on, you silly ass!" said I. "What is there to fight about?"

He was mad with passion, and chucked his gloves down under the table.

"By God, Munro," he cried, "if you don't take those gloves off, I'll go
for you, whether you have them on or not."

"Have a glass of soda water," said I.

He made a crack at me. "You're afraid of me, Munro. That's what's the
matter with you," he snarled.

This was getting too hot, Bertie. I saw all the folly of the thing. I
believed that I might whip him; but at the same time I knew that we were
so much of a match that we would both get pretty badly cut up without
any possible object to serve. For all that, I took my gloves off, and I
think perhaps it was the wisest course after all. If Cullingworth
once thought he had the whiphand of you, you might be sorry for it
afterwards.

But, as fate would have it, our little barney was nipped in the bud.
Mrs. Cullingworth came into the room at that instant, and screamed out
when she saw her husband. His nose was bleeding and his chin was all
slobbered with blood, so that I don't wonder that it gave her a turn.

"James!" she screamed; and then to me: "What is the meaning of this,
Mr. Munro?"

You should have seen the hatred in her dove's eyes. I felt an insane
impulse to pick her up and kiss her.

"We've only been having a little spar, Mrs. Cullingworth," said I. "Your
husband was complaining that he never got any exercise."

"It's all right, Hetty," said he, pulling his coat on again. "Don't be a
little stupid. Are the servants gone to bed? Well, you might bring some
water in a basin from the kitchen. Sit down, Munro, and light your pipe
again. I have a hundred things that I want to talk to you about."

So that was the end of it, and all went smoothly for the rest of the
evening. But, for all that, the little wife will always look upon me
as a brute and a bully; w