In an instant Jack was upon him, and, with a heavy blow, laid him flat upon the piazza. Some men deserve knocking down and are made better for it, but Paul was not one of them, and his face was livid with rage at the indignity offered him. He had sought Jack with the kindest intentions and been grossly insulted. Springing to his feet, he raised his hand again threateningly, then dropped it, and, controlling himself with a great effort, he said, “This is not the place to settle with you, Jack Percy, but I’ll make you pay for this some time, see if I don’t.” Just what he meant he did not know. He was too much excited and mortified to reason clearly. He had been knocked down and called a coward and a snob and a pirate. His promised wife had been called a liar and a flirt and a cheat. Many of his friends had witnessed his humiliation, and amid the Babel of voices around him he heard the words, “Fight him; thrash him; he deserves it. We’ll stand by you and help lick him if necessary.” He knew the popular feeling was with him, but it did not help him much. He was very proud and felt keenly the insult put upon him and the injustice of it. It was a disgrace to be mixed up in such a row, and all he wanted was to be alone until his temper had cooled. “Let me out of this before I break his head,” he said, as he pushed his way to the street. The bell in the church near the hotel was ringing its first summons for service, but Paul did not hear it, or remember that he was to sing a solo that morning and that Elithe was to sing another at the offertory, and if he had he could not enter the House of God in his present state of mind. Leaving the hotel, he walked along the beach until he reached the seat under the willow tree where Jack had sat the night before until the stars came out and the fog was creeping inland. Here Paul sat down, trying to comprehend the situation and forget the indignity offered him. But he could not. The more he thought of it the angrier he grew, with a feeling that he must do something. “I’d like to kill him!” he said aloud, just as a shadow fell upon the sand, and looking up he saw a half-grown boy regarding him wonderingly. “Who are you and why are you staring so at me? Be off with yourself!” he said savagely.