screpancy, let us call it--between you and me remains as
conspicuous as ever it was. I see through you, sir, much more clearly
than, by this light, I can see you. I am fond of you, Harvey; but I
feel nothing but contempt for your present attitude. In the first place,
conscious as you are of your skill with that weapon, you know that this
affair--even had seconds been present--would have been, not a duel,
but an assassination. You acted like a coward!--I say it, sir, like a
coward!--and I hope you may live to be as much ashamed of yourself as
I am now ashamed for you. Secondly, your conduct, considered in its
relations to--to certain persons whom I will not name, is that of a boor
and a blackguard. Suppose you had accomplished the cowardly murder--the
cowardly murder, I said, sir--that you were bent upon to-night. Do you
think that would be a grateful and acceptable return for the courtesy
and confidence that have been shown you in that house?--a house, sir, to
which I myself introduced you, under the mistaken belief that you were
a gentleman, or, at least, could feign gentlemanly behavior! But I
won't--my feelings won't allow me to enlarge further upon this point.
But allow me to add, in the third place, that you have shown yourself
a purblind donkey. Actually, you haven't sense enough to know the
difference between those who pull with you and those who pull against
you. Now, I happen to know--to know, do you hear?--that had you
succeeded in what you were just about to attempt, you would have removed
your surest ally,--the surest, because his interests prompt him to favor
yours. You pick out the one man who was doing his best to clear the
obstacle out of your path, and what do you do?--Thank him?--Not you!
You plot to kill him! But even had he been, as you in your stupidity
imagined, your rival, do you think the course you adopted would have
promoted your advantage? Let me tell you, sir, that you don't know the
kind of people you are dealing with. You would never have been permitted
to cross their threshold again. And you may take my word for it, if
ever you venture to recur to any such folly, I will see to it that you
receive your deserts.--Well, I think we understand each other, now?"

Freeman's emotions had undergone several variations during the course of
the mighty professor's harangue. But he had ended by admitting the force
of the argument; and the reminiscences of college lecturings aroused by
the incident had ti