"
"Satisfaction! and equal arms!" repeated Ravenswood, who, the reader
will recollect, had no reason to suppose he had given the slightest
offence to his late intimate; "upon my word, Captain Craigengelt, either
you have invented the most improbable falsehood that ever came into the
mind of such a person, or your morning draught has been somewhat of the
strongest. What could persuade Bucklaw to send me such a message?"
"For that, sir," replied Craigengelt, "I am desired to refer you to
what, in duty to my friend, I am to term your inhospitality in excluding
him from your house, without reasons assigned."
"It is impossible," replied the Master; "he cannot be such a fool as to
interpret actual necessity as an insult. Nor do I believe that, knowing
my opinion of you, Captain, he would have employed the services of so
slight and inconsiderable a person as yourself upon such an errand, as I
certainly could expect no man of honour to act with you in the office of
umpire."
"I slight and inconsiderable?" said Craigengelt, raising his voice, and
laying his hand on his cutlass; "if it were not that the quarrel of
my friend craves the precedence, and is in dependence before my own, I
would give you to understand----"
"I can understand nothing upon your explanation, Captain Craigengelt.
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