"But our good fortune was indeed marvellous,--so extraordinary that a Sicilian (the Sicilians are all ill-bred, bad-tempered fellows) grew angry and insolent.

'Sir,' said he, turning to my new friend, 'you have no business to stand so near to the table.

I do not understand this; you have not acted fairly.' The spectator replied, with great composure, that he had done nothing against the rules; that he was very sorry that one man could not win without another man losing; and that he could not act unfairly even if disposed to do so.

The Sicilian took the stranger's mildness for apprehension,--blustered more loudly, and at length fairly challenged him.

'I never seek a quarrel, and I never shun a danger,' returned my partner; and six or seven of us adjourned to the garden behind the house.