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 sudden? Neither wife, here, nor I could set eyes on you. And so you've struck up an acquaintance with Master Gerald, have you?"

"Well, yes; and struck an acquaintance of his in the middle of his back," responded Philip. "How do you do, Miss Beauchamp? Didn't you, any of you, see the fight?"

"Fight!" cried Mrs. Wooden, clapping her fat hand to her bosom and nearly dropping the wooden tray of fresh butter she held. "Why, Philip Touchtone! Who has been a-fightin'? Not you—nor you?" she added, turning to Gerald.

"We all have been fighting, I'm afraid, Mrs. Wooden," said the latter—"three of us."

After this preamble there had to be an account of the skirmish. Miss Beauchamp and Mrs. Wooden alike decided it was "shocking."

"He might have drawn a pistol on both of you!" exclaimed Miss Beauchamp, "and a great deal more might have come of it."

"Well," Gerald protested, "the only thing that's come of it is that I have met a friend of yours here."

"And you couldn't do a better thing, Gerald!" exclaimed Mrs. Wooden, beginning to