"Mr. Crawford," he said, "I warn you that you are pushing your remarks
too far. On many previous occasions you have chosen to make observations
which I could, if I had chosen, have resented as insulting. I did not
choose, for I hate brawling, and consider that for me, who have but
lately joined the regiment, to be engaged in a quarrel with an officer
senior to myself would be in the highest degree unbecoming; but I am sure
that my fellow officers will bear me out in saying that I have shown
fully as much patience as is becoming. I, therefore, have to tell you
that I will no longer be your butt, and that I shall treat any further
remark of the nature of those you have just made as a deliberate insult,
and shall take measures accordingly."
A murmur of approval rose among the officers sitting round, and those
sitting near Crawford endeavoured to quiet him. The wine which he had
taken had, however, excited his quarrelsome instinct too far for either
counsel or prudence to prevail.
"I shall say what I choose," he said, rising to his feet. "I am not going
to be dictated to by anyone, much less a boy who has just joined the
regiment, and who calls himself Leslie, though no one knows whether he
has any right to the name."
"Very well, sir," Leslie said in a quiet tone, which was, however, heard
distinctly throughout the circle, for at this last outburst on the part
of Crawford a dead silence had fallen on the circle, for only one
termination could follow such an insult.
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