t. He cocked his eye at Mr. Redworth's
quick stare. 'Malkin!' And now we'll see whether the interior of him is
grey, or black, or tabby, or tortoise-shell, or any other colour of the
Malkin breed.'

He explained to Mr. Redworth that he had summoned Mr. Malkin to answer
to him as a gentleman for calling Miss Merion a jilt. 'The man, sir,
said in my hearing, she jilted him, and that's to call the lady a jilt.
There's not a point of difference, not a shade. I overheard him. I
happened by the blessing of Providence to be by when he named her
publicly jilt. And it's enough that she's a lady to have me for her
champion. The same if she had been an Esquimaux squaw. I'll never live
to hear a lady insulted.'

'You don't mean to say you're the donkey to provoke a duel!' Mr.
Redworth burst out gruffly, through turkey and stuffing.

'And an Irish lady, the young Beauty of Erin!' Mr. Sullivan Smith was
flowing on. He became frigid, he politely bowed: 'Two, sir, if you
haven't the grace to withdraw the offensive term before it cools and
can't be obliterated.'

'Fiddle! and go to the deuce!' Mr. Redworth cried.

'Would a soft slap o' the cheek persuade you, sir?'

'Try it outside, and don't bother me with nonsense of that sort at my
supper. If I'm struck, I strike back. I keep my pistols for bandits and
law-breakers. Here,' said Mr. Redworth, better inspired as to the way of
treating an ultra of the isle; 'touch glasses: you're a gentleman, and
won't disturb good company. By-and-by.'

The pleasing prospect of by-and-by renewed in Mr. Sullivan Smith his
composure. They touched the foaming glasses: upon which, in a friendly
manner, Mr. Sullivan Smith proposed that they should go outside as
soon as Mr. Redworth had finished supper-quite finished supper: for the
reason that the term 'donkey' affixed to him was like a minster cap of
schooldays, ringing bells on his topknot, and also that it stuck in his
gizzard.

Mr. Redworth declared the term to be simply hypothetical. 'If you fight,
you're a donkey for doing it. But you won't fight.'

'But I will fight.'

'He won't fight.'

'Then for the honour of your country you must. But I'd rather have
him first, for I haven't drunk with him, and it should be a case of
necessity to put a bullet or a couple of inches of steel through the man
you've drunk with. And what's in your favour, she danced with ye. She
seemed to take to ye, and the man she has the smallest sugar-melting for
is s