"Either you withdraw what you have said or tomorrow I will report it to his Excellency!" "Go ahead--right now--go on!" was the sarcastic rejoinder of Fray Damaso as he approached the officer with clenched fists.

"Do you think that because I wear the cloth, I'm afraid?
Go now, while I can lend you my carriage!" The dispute was taking a ludicrous turn, but fortunately the Dominican intervened.

"Gentlemen," he began in an authoritative tone and with the nasal twang that so well becomes the friars, "you must not confuse things or seek for offenses where there are none.

We must distinguish in the words of Fray Damaso those of the man from those of the priest.

The latter, as such, _per se_, can never give offense, because they spring from absolute truth, while in those of the man there is a secondary distinction to be made: those which he utters _ab irato_, those which he utters _ex ore_, but not _in corde_, and those which he does utter _in corde_.