"It seems extraordinary to me that sons of gentlemen should engage in a personal fight with boys of the lowest class.

Such a thing could not happen here.

If you were insulted by such a boy, what would you do, Ernest ?" "I should run him through the body," Ernest said quietly.
"Just so," his father replied, "and I don't say you would be wrong according to our notions; but I do not say that the English plan is not the best.

The English gentleman--for Monsieur Sandwith says that even among grown-up people the same habits prevail--does not disdain to show the canaille that even with their own rough weapons he is their superior, and he thus holds their respect.

It is a coarse way and altogether at variance with our notions, but there is much to be said for it." "But it altogether does away with the reverence that the lower class should feel for the upper," Ernest objected.
"That is true, Ernest.