Apparently it pleased him to know that the boy whom he had never thus far been able to coax into a row with him had arrived on the spot.

He must have judged that this was a piece of double luck, in that he might take revenge upon the one who had interfered with his pleasure, and at the same time force Hugh Morgan, who had never been known to engage in any rowdy practices, to enter into a rough-and-tumble scrap with him.
"Hello! so you're there, are you, Hugh Morgan ?" he called out, with a ring of savage delight in his heavy voice.

"Glad you've dropped in just in time to see me give a good friend of yours a little lesson in politeness.

Here's Owen saying how he thinks it good taste to step in between a fellow and his best girl.

I'm meaning to knock a different notion into his silly head.