The soldier's habit of self-control was strong in him, and the sardonic humour of his nature served as a garment to the thoughts he harboured.
"It appears," he said, "that I am to spend the remainder of an honourable life in fighting with a pack of hounds.

I nearly killed your old acquaintance, the Signor Professore Cardegna, this afternoon." Hedwig staggered back, and turned pale.
"What! Is he wounded ?" she gasped out, pressing her hand to his side.
"Ha! That touches you almost as closely as Benoni's insult," he said, savagely.

"I am glad of it.

I repent me, and wish that I had killed him.

We met on the road, and he had the impertinence to ask me for your hand,--I am sick of these daily proposals of marriage; and then I inquired if he meant to insult me." Hedwig leaned heavily on the table in an agony of suspense.
"The fellow answered that if I were insulted he was ready to fight then and there, in the road, with my pistols.