Ernest. Yes, they did.
Pepito. How can you waste your time so coolly, and sit there so calm, doing nothing, when in another hour you will be measuring swords with Nebreda, who, for all his dandy's cane, is a man when put upon his mettle? Wouldn't it be saner and wiser to practise fencing instead of expounding questions of verse and rhyme? You look so mighty cool that I almost doubt if you regard your meeting with the viscount as serious.
Ernest. No,—for a good reason. If I kill him, the world gains; if he kill me, I gain.
Pepito. Well, that's good.
Ernest. Don't say any more about it.
Pepito. [Aside.] Now I must warily find out. [Approaches him and speaks in a low voice.] Is it for to-day?
Ernest. Yes, to-day.
Pepito. Outside the town?
Ernest, No, there's no time for that. Besides, we wish to keep it quiet.
Pepito. In a house, then?
Ernest. So I proposed.
Pepito. Where?
Ernest. Upstairs. [Speaks with cold indifference.] There's a room unlet upstairs, with a side window, through which nobody can look. Under the circumstances it's better than a field, and will be had for a handful of silver.
Pepito. And now all you need
Ernest. The swords!
Pepito. I hear voices outside. Somebody is coming—the seconds?
54
