At last: "Is it wonderful that I should drag in the name of your betrothed ?" said he.

"But perhaps you will deny that Mademoiselle de Marsac is that to you ?" he suggested.
And I, forgetting for the moment the part I played and the man whose identity I had put on, made answer hotly: "I do deny it." "Why, then, you lie," said he, and shrugged hits shoulders with insolent contempt.
In all my life I do not think it could be said of me that I had ever given way to rage.

Rude, untutored minds may fall a prey to passion, but a gentleman, I hold, is never angry.

Nor was I then, so far as the outward signs of anger count.

I doffed my hat with a sweep to Roxalanne, who stood by with fear and wonder blending in her glance.
"Mademoiselle, you will forgive that I find it necessary to birch this babbling schoolboy in your presence." Then, with the pleasantest manner in the world, I stepped aside, and plucked the cane from the Chevalier's hand before he had so much as guessed what I was about.