“Simply, sir,” replied Lovel, “that my name is Lovel, and that my residence is, for the present, Fairport, as you will see by this card.” “And is this all the information you are disposed to give me?” “I see no right you have to require more.” “I find you, sir, in company with my sister,” said the young soldier, “and I have a right to know who is admitted into Miss M’Intyre’s society.” “I shall take the liberty of disputing that right,” replied Lovel, with a manner as haughty as that of the young soldier;--“you find me in society who are satisfied with the degree of information on my affairs which I have thought proper to communicate, and you, a mere stranger, have no right to inquire further.” “Mr. Lovel, if you served as you say you have”-- “If!” interrupted Lovel,--“if I have served as I say I have?” “Yes, sir, such is my expression--if you have so served, you must know that you owe me satisfaction either in one way or other.” “If that be your opinion, I shall be proud to give it to you, Captain M’Intyre, in the way in which the word is generally used among gentlemen.” “Very well, sir,” rejoined Hector, and, turning his horse round, galloped off to overtake his party. His absence had already alarmed them, and his sister, having stopped the carriage, had her neck stretched out of the window to see where he was. “What is the matter with you now?” said the Antiquary, “riding to and fro as your neck were upon the wager--why do you not keep up with the carriage?” “I forgot my glove, sir,” said Hector. “Forgot your glove!--I presume you meant to say you went to throw it down--But I will take order with you, my young gentleman--you shall return with me this night to Monkbarns.” So saying, he bid the postilion go on. CHAPTER TWENTIETH. --If you fail Honour here, Never presume to serve her any more; Bid farewell to the integrity of armes; And the honourable name of soldier Fall from you, like a shivered wreath of laurel By thunder struck from a desertlesse forehead. A Faire Quarrell. Early the next morning, a gentleman came to wait upon Mr. Lovel, who was up and ready to receive him. He was a military gentleman, a friend of Captain M’Intyre’s, at present in Fairport on the recruiting service. Lovel and he were slightly known to each other. “I presume, sir,” said Mr. Lesley (such was the name of the visitor), “that you guess the occasion of my troubling you so early?” “A message from Captain M’Intyre, I presume?” “The same. He holds himself injured by the manner in which you declined yesterday to answer certain inquiries which he conceived himself entitled to make respecting a gentleman whom he found in intimate society with his family.” “May I ask, if you, Mr. Lesley, would have inclined to satisfy interrogatories so haughtily and unceremoniously put to you?”