Shepster declined cold steel, calling it murder, and was effusive of nature's logic on the subject.
'Because a man comes and knocks me down, I'm to go up to him and ask him to run me through!' His shake of the head signified that he was not such a noodle.

Voluble and prolific of illustration, as is no one so much as a son of nature inspired to speak her words of wisdom, he defied the mandate, and refused himself satisfaction, until in the strangest manner possible flights of white feathers beset him, and he became a mark for persecution too trying for the friendship of his friends.

He fled, repeating his tale, that he had seen 'Beamish's Duchess,' and Chloe attending her, at an assignation in the South Grove, where a gentleman, unknown to the Wells, presented himself to the adventurous ladies, and they walked together--a tale ending with nods.
Shepster's banishment was one of those victories of justice upon which mankind might be congratulated if they left no commotion behind.

But, as when a boy has been horsed before his comrades, dread may visit them, yet is there likewise devilry in the school; and everywhere over earth a summary punishment that does not sweep the place clear is likely to infect whom it leaves remaining.

The great law-givers, Lycurgus, Draco, Solon, Beamish, sorrowfully acknowledge that they have had recourse to infernal agents, after they have thus purified their circle of an offender.