"Well, sir, if you are concerned," said the man of peace, snappishly, "so am I, and there is an end of it.--And touching my errand to you--you cannot have forgotten that you treated my friend, Sir Bingo Binks, with singular incivility?" "I recollect nothing of the kind, Captain," replied Tyrrel. "I remember that the gentleman, so called, took some uncivil liberties in laying foolish bets concerning me, and that I treated him, from respect to the rest of the company, and the ladies in particular, with a great degree of moderation and forbearance." "And you must have very fine ideas of forbearance," replied the Captain, "when you took my good friend by the collar of the coat, and lifted him out of your way as if he had been a puppy dog! My good Mr. Tyrrel, I can assure you he does not think that you have forborne him at all, and he has no purpose to forbear you; and I must either carry back a sufficient apology, or you must meet in a quiet way, with a good friend on each side.--And this was the errand I came on, when this tamned woman, with the hearth-broom, who is an enemy to all quiet and peaceable proceedings"---- "We will forget Mrs. Dods for the present, if you please, Captain MacTurk," said Tyrrel--"and, to speak to the present subject, you will permit me to say, that I think this summons comes a little of the latest. You know best as a military man, but I have always understood that such differences are usually settled immediately after they occur--not that I intend to baulk Sir Bingo's inclinations upon the score of delay, or any other account." "I dare say you will not--I dare say you will not, Mr. Tyrrel," answered the Captain--"I am free to think that you know better what belongs to a gentleman.--And as to time--look you, my good sir, there are different sorts of people in this world, as there are different sorts of fire-arms. There are your hair-trigger'd rifles, that go off just at the right moment, and in the twinkling of an eye, and that, Mr. Tyrrel, is your true man of honour;--and there is a sort of person that takes a thing up too soon, and sometimes backs out of it, like your rubbishy Birmingham pieces, that will at one time go off at half-cock, and at another time burn priming without going off at all;--then again pieces that hang fire--or I should rather say, that are like the matchlocks which the black fellows use in the East Indies--there must be some blowing of the match, and so forth, which occasions delay, but the piece carries true enough after all." "And your friend Sir Bingo's valour is of this last kind, Captain--I presume that is the inference. I should have thought it more like a boy's cannon, which is fired by means of a train, and is but a pop-gun after all." "I cannot allow of such comparisons, sir," said the Captain; "you will understand that I come here as Sir Bingo's friend, and a reflection on him will be an affront to me."