SECRETARY (_enters_).
Good-evening.
LEONARD.
The secretary! To what do I owe the honour of----
SEC.
You’ll soon see, my boy.[21]
LEONARD.
You’re very familiar.[21] We _were_ at school together, of
course----
SEC.
And perhaps we shall die together. (_Producing pistols._) Do you
know how to use these things?
LEONARD.
I don’t understand you.
SEC. (_cocks one_).
Do you see? That’s the way you do it. Then you aim at me, so, and
fire.
LEONARD.
What are you talking about?
SEC.
One of us two has got to die. Die! At once!
LEONARD.
Die?
SEC.
You know why.
LEONARD.
By God, I don’t.
SEC.
Never mind. You’ll remember when you breathe your last.
LEONARD.
I haven’t the faintest idea.
SEC.
Now just come to your senses. Or else I might shoot you down for
a mad dog that has bitten what is dearest to me, without knowing
what I was doing;--as it is I’ve got to treat you as an equal for
half an hour.
LEONARD.
Don’t talk so loud. If any one heard you----
SEC.
If any one could hear, you’d have called out long ago. Well?
LEONARD.
If it’s on the girl’s account, I can marry her. I’d half made up
my mind to, when she was here.
SEC.
She’s been and gone again, without seeing you on your knees in
remorse and contrition? Come! Come!
LEONARD.
I beg you! I will do anything you wish. I’ll get engaged to her
to-night.
SEC.
Either I do that or nobody. And if the world depended on it, you
shan’t touch the hem of her garment again. Come with me. Into
the woods! Look here, I’ll take you by the arm and if you make
so much as a sound on the road, I’ll----(_raising a pistol_).
Believe me. Anyhow we’ll take the back way through the gardens,
to keep you out of temptation.
LEONARD.
One’s mine; give it me.
SEC.
So that you can throw it away and force me to let you run away,
or murder you, what? Have patience till we get to the spot, then
I’ll divide squarely with you.
LEONARD (_accidentally knocks his glass off the table when going out_).
Shall I never drink again?
SEC.
Buck up, boy, you may come off all right. God and the devil are
forever fighting for the world, it seems. Who knows which is
master? (_Takes his arm; both go out._)