It was
really incredible to find this great gentleman so far forgetting
himself as to descend to argument with a canaille of a
lawyer-swordsman. And what was worse, it was an argument in which
he was being made ridiculous.
"I oppose myself to them!" said Andre-Louis on a tone of amused
protest. "Ah, pardon, M. le Marquis; it is they who chose to oppose
themselves to me - and so stupidly. They push me, they slap my
face, they tread on my toes, they call me by unpleasant names. What
if I am a fencing-master? Must I on that account submit to every
manner of ill-treatment from your bad-mannered friends? Perhaps had
they found out sooner that I am a fencing-master their manners would
have been better. But to blame me for that! What injustice!"
"Comedian!" the Marquis contemptuously apostrophized him. "Does it
alter the case? Are these men who have opposed you men who live by
the sword like yourself?"
"On the contrary, M. le Marquis, I have found them men who died by
the sword with astonishing ease. I cannot suppose that you desire
to add yourself to their number.
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