The absence of seconds disposed of all formalities, the rain made us impatient to be done, and in virtue of it Canaples pompously announced that he would not risk a cold by stripping.
With interest did I grimly answer that he need fear no cold when I had done with him.

Then casting aside my cloak, I drew, and, professing myself also disposed to retain my doublet, we forthwith engaged.
He was no mean swordsman, this Canaples.

Indeed, his reputation was already widespread, and in the first shock of our meeting blades I felt that rumour had been just for once.

But I was strangely dispossessed of any doubts touching the outcome; this being due perchance to a vain confidence in my own skill, perchance to the spirit of contemptuous raillery wherewith I had from the outset treated the affair, and which had so taken root in my heart that even when we engaged I still, almost unwittingly, persisted in it.
In my face and attitude there was the reflection of this bantering, flippant mood; it was to be read in the mocking disdain of my glance, in the scornful curl of my lip, and even in the turn of my wrist as I put aside my opponent's passes.

All this, Canaples must have noted, and it was not without effect upon his nerves.