s estropies_. That is downright! That
is certain, sare. I do not do it."

If the Colonel had been listening he might have caught the sound of a
warning cough, with a stir, and a subdued murmur of voices--all
proceeding from the direction of the inner room. But he had his back to
the half-opened door and he seemed to be taken up with the
fencing-master's change of tone. "But if," he objected, "I am willing
to pay for an hour's practice?"

"Another day, sare. Another day, if you will."

"But I shall not be here another day. I have but to-day. By-and-by," he
continued with a smile as kindly as it was humorous, "I shall begin to
think that you are afraid to pit yourself against a _manchot_!"

"Oh, la! la!" The Frenchman dismissed the idea with a contemptuous
gesture.

"Do me the favour, then," Colonel John retorted. "If you please?"

Against one of the walls were three chairs arranged in a row. Before
each stood a boot-jack, and beside it a pair of boot-hooks; over it,
fixed in the wall, were two or three pegs for the occupant's wig,
cravat, and cane. The Colonel, without waiting for a further answer,
took his seat on one of the chairs, removed his boots, and then his
coat, vest, and wig, which he hung on the pegs above him.

"And now," he said gaily, as he stood up, "the mask!"

He did not see the change--for he seemed to have no suspicion--but as
he rose, the door of the room behind him became fringed with grinning
faces. Payton, the two youths who had leant from the window of the inn
and who had carried his words, a couple of older officers, half a dozen
subalterns, all were there--and one or two civilians. The more grave
could hardly keep the more hilarious in order. The curtain was ready to
go up on what they promised themselves would be the most absurd scene.
The stranger who fought no duels, yet thought that a lesson or two
would make him a match for a dead-hand like Payton--was ever such a
promising joke conceived? The good feeling, even the respect which the
Colonel had succeeded in awakening for a short time the evening before,
were forgotten in the prospect of such a jest.

The Frenchman made no further demur. He had said what he could, and it
was not his business to quarrel with his best clients. He took his
mask, and proffered a choice of foils to his antagonist, whose figure,
freed from the heavy coat and vest of the day, and the overshadowing
wig, seemed younger and more supple than the Frenchman ha