backwards and forwards, and did all sorts of things while I looked helplessly at
him.
    I was secretly afraid of him when I saw him so dexterous; but, I felt
morally and physically convinced that his light head of hair could have had no
business in the pit of my stomach, and that I had a right to consider it
irrelevant when so obtruded on my attention. Therefore, I followed him without a
word, to a retired nook of the garden, formed by the junction of two walls and
screened by some rubbish. On his asking me if I was satisfied with the ground,
and on my replying Yes, he begged my leave to absent himself for a moment, and
quickly returned with a bottle of water and a sponge dipped in vinegar.
»Available for both,« he said, placing these against the wall. And then fell to
pulling off, not only his jacket and waistcoat, but his shirt too, in a manner
at once light-hearted, business-like, and bloodthirsty.
    Although he did not look very healthy - having pimples on his face, and a
breaking out on his mouth - these dreadful preparations quite appalled me. I
judged him to be about my own age, but he was much taller, and he had a way of
spinning himself about that was full of appearance. For the rest, he was a young
gentleman in a grey suit (when not denuded for battle), with his elbows, knees,
wrists, and heels considerably in advance of the rest of him as to development.
    My heart failed me when I saw him squaring at me with every demonstration of
mechanical nicety, and eyeing my anatomy as if he were minutely choosing his
bone. I never have been so surprised in my life, as I was when I let out the
first blow, and saw him lying on his back, looking up at me with a bloody nose
and his face exceedingly fore-shortened.
    But, he was on his feet directly, and after sponging himself with a great
show of dexterity began squaring again. The second greatest surprise I have ever
had in my life was seeing him on his back again, looking up at me out of a black
eye.
    His spirit inspired me with great respect. He seemed to have no strength,
and he never once hit me hard, and he was always knocked down; but, he would be
up again in a moment, sponging himself or drinking out of the water-bottle, with
the greatest satisfaction in seconding himself according to form, and then came
at me with an air and