utraged all
propriety by writing to his wife. Of course he would be justified
in horsewhipping him. But there were difficulties. A man is not
horsewhipped simply because you wish to horsewhip him.

In the evening, as he was sitting alone, he got a note from Mr.
Sprugeon. "Mr. Sprugeon's compliments. Doesn't Mr. Lopez think an
address to the electors should appear in to-morrow's 'Gazette,'--very
short and easy;--something like the following." Then Mr. Sprugeon
added a very "short and easy letter" to the electors of the borough
of Silverbridge, in which Mr. Lopez was supposed to tell them that
although his canvass promised to him every success, he felt that
he owed it to the borough to retire, lest he should injure the
borough by splitting the Liberal interest with their much respected
fellow-townsman, Mr. Du Boung. In the course of the evening he did
copy that letter, and sent it out to the newspaper office. He must
retire, and it was better for him that he should retire after some
recognised fashion. But he wrote another letter also, and sent it
over to the opposition hotel. The other letter was as follows:--

SIR,--

Before this election began you were guilty of gross
impertinence in writing a letter to my wife,--to her
extreme annoyance and to my most justifiable anger. Any
gentleman would think that the treatment you had already
received at her hands would have served to save her from
such insult, but there are men who will never take a
lesson without a beating. And now, since you have been
here, you have presumed to offer to shake hands with me in
the street, though you ought to have known that I should
not choose to meet you on friendly terms after what has
taken place. I now write to tell you that I shall carry a
horsewhip while I am here, and that if I meet you in the
streets again before I leave the town I shall use it.

FERDINAND LOPEZ.

Mr. Arthur Fletcher.

This letter he sent at once to his enemy, and then sat late into
the night thinking of his threat and of the manner in which he
would follow it up. If he could only get one fair blow at Fletcher
his purpose, he thought, would be achieved. In any matter of
horsewhipping the truth hardly ever gets itself correctly known.
The man who has given the first blow is generally supposed to
have thrashed the other. What might follow, though it might be
inconvenient, must be borne. The man had insulted him