'He'll break it now, if it ain't already,' cried Milly, alluding, as I afterwards understood, to the Captain's Grecian nose. 'Brayvo, little un!' The Captain was considerably the taller. Another smack, and, I suppose, Captain Oakley fell once more. 'Hooray! the dinner-service again, by ----,' roared Dickon. 'Stick to that. Over the same ground--subsoil, I say. He han't enough yet.' In a perfect tremor of disgust, I was making as quick a retreat as I could, and as I did, I heard Captain Oakley shriek hoarsely-- 'You're a d---- prizefighter; I can't box you.' 'I told ye I'd lick ye to fits,' hooted Dudley. 'But you're the son of a gentleman, and by ---- you shall fight me _as_ a gentleman.' A yell of hooting laughter from Dudley and Dickon followed this sally. 'Gi'e my love to the Colonel, and think o' me when ye look in the glass--won't ye? An' so you're goin' arter all; well, follow what's left o' yer nose. Ye forgot some o' yer ivories, didn't ye, on th' grass?' These and many similar jibes followed the mangled Captain in his retreat. CHAPTER XLVII _DOCTOR BRYERLY REAPPEARS_ No one who has not experienced it can imagine the nervous disgust and horror which such a spectacle as we had been forced in part to witness leaves upon the mind of a young person of my peculiar temperament. It affected ever after my involuntary estimate of the principal actors in it. An exhibition of such thorough inferiority, accompanied by such a shock to the feminine sense of elegance, is not forgotten by any woman. Captain Oakley had been severely beaten by a smaller man. It was pitiable, but also undignified; and Milly's anxieties about his teeth and nose, though in a certain sense horrible, had also a painful suspicion of the absurd. People say, on the other hand, that superior prowess, even in such barbarous contests, inspires in our sex an interest akin to admiration. I can positively say in my case it was quite the reverse. Dudley Ruthyn stood lower than ever in my estimation; for though I feared him more, it was by reason of these brutal and cold-blooded associations. After this I lived in constant apprehension of being summoned to my uncle's room, and being called on for an explanation of my meeting with Captain Oakley, which, notwithstanding my perfect innocence, looked suspicious, but no such inquisition resulted. Perhaps he did not suspect me; or, perhaps, he thought, not in his haste, all women are liars, and did not care to hear what I might say. I rather lean to the latter interpretation. The exchequer just now, I suppose, by some means, was replenished, for next morning Dudley set off upon one of his fashionable excursions, as poor Milly thought them, to Wolverhampton. And the same day Dr. Bryerly arrived. Milly and I, from my room window, saw him step from his vehicle to the court-yard.