It may not be offered; but, again, it may." And, as the pair prepared for bed, the elder man instructed his companion in all the details of duelling, that he might be prepared to play his part on the morrow with confidence and aplomb.
"I have a few excellent rules of my own, Tom, and I have never been worsted once, and only once wounded.

I neither drink, nor dice, nor dance, nor weary myself the previous day.

I go overnight to the place of meeting, and I retire to bed early and sleep sound.

I take a modest breakfast, without wine or spirit, an hour before the meeting; and I come to the ground with a head as cool and a hand as steady as though no such thing as danger or death existed in the world.

Some men pride themselves on sitting up and dicing and drinking away the night, to show their own courage and their contempt for their adversary.