It was while he was telling me how he had once fooled a country girl that I balked.

He thought it a fine joke, for his father had cut his allowance two hundred a year so that the sum they had had to pay in damages had kept his nose "on the grindstone" for two years.

Then I stopped my horse with an exclamation which would have astonished Lord Chesterfield, I am sure.
The young man drew rein and asked: "What's the matter ?" "Only this.

I shall have to try to lick you before we go any further." "How's that ?" I dismounted and tightened the girth of my saddle.

My spirit was taking swift counsel with itself at the brink of the precipice.