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Are
they coming this way?" When Tom told him that they had faced about,
and admonished him to advance, the nerves of his arm refused their
office, he could not hold out his pistol, and instead of going
forward, retreated with an insensibility of motion; till Pipes,
placing himself in the rear, set his own back to that of his
principal, and swore he should not budge an inch farther in that
direction.
While the valet thus tutored the painter, his master enjoyed the
terrors of the physician, which were more ridiculous than those
of Pallet, because he was more intent upon disguising them. His
declaration to Pickle in the morning would not suffer him to start
any objections when he received the challenge; and finding that the
young gentleman made no offer of mediating the affair, but rather
congratulated him on the occasion, when he communicated the painter's
billet, all his efforts consisted in oblique hints, and general
reflections upon the absurdity of duelling, which was first introduced
among civilised nations by the barbarous Huns and Longobards.


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