Then he found his voice, with a chuckle.
'This is not the way to Mr.Merton's,' said he.
'No ?' said I.'It is mine, however.' 'And therefore mine,' said he.
Again we fell silent; and we may thus have covered half a mile before the lane, taking a sudden turn, brought us forth again into the moonshine.
With his hooded great-coat on his back, his valise in his hand, his black wig adjusted, and footing it on the ice with a sort of sober doggedness of manner, my enemy was changed almost beyond recognition: changed in everything but a certain dry, polemical, pedantic air, that spoke of a sedentary occupation and high stools.

I observed, too, that his valise was heavy; and, putting this and that together, hit upon a plan.
'A seasonable night, sir,' said I.

'What do you say to a bit of running?
The frost has me by the toes.' 'With all the pleasure in life,' says he.
His voice seemed well assured, which pleased me little.

However, there was nothing else to try, except violence, for which it would always be too soon.

I took to my heels accordingly, he after me; and for some time the slapping of our feet on the hard road might have been heard a mile away.