e took his place near the head of the table.

After all the solid and a part of the liquid entertainment was over,
Alec rose in the space between two toasts, and said:

"Mr Chairman and gentlemen, I propose, at my own proper cost, to
provide something for your amusement."

Beauchamp and all stared at the speaker.

"It is to be regretted," Alec went on, "that students have no court of
honour to which to appeal. This is the first opportunity I have had of
throwing myself on the generosity of my equals, and asking them to
listen to my story."

The interest of the company was already roused. All the heads about the
long table leaned towards the speaker, and cries of _hear, hear_, arose
in all directions. Alec then gave a brief statement of the facts of the
encounter upon the bridge. This was the only part of his relations with
Beauchamp which he chose to bring before the public; for the greater
wrong of lying defamation involved his cousin's name. He told how
Beauchamp had sought the encounter by deliberate insult, had used a
weapon against an unarmed enemy, and then thrown him from the bridge.

"Now," he concluded, "all I ask of you, gentlemen, is to allow me the
fair arena of your presence while I give this sneaking chieftain the
personal chastisement which he has so richly merited at my hands."

Beauchamp had soon recovered his self-possession after the first
surprise of the attack. He sat drinking his toddy all the time Alec
spoke, and in the middle of his speech he mixed himself another
tumbler. When Alec sat down, he rose, glanced round the assembly, bent
his lip into its most scornful curves, and, in a clear, unwavering
voice, said:

"Mr Chairman and gentlemen, I repel the accusation."

Alec started to his feet in wrath.

"Mr Forbes, sit down," bawled the chairman; and Alec obeyed, though
with evident reluctance.

"I say the accusation is false," repeated Beauchamp. "I do not say that
Mr Forbes consciously invented the calumny in order to take away my
character: such an assertion would preclude its own credence. Nor do I
venture to affirm that he never was stabbed, or thrown into the river.
But I ask any gentleman who happens to be aware of Mr Forbes's
devotions at the shrine of Father Lyaeus, which is the more
likely--that a fellow-student should stab and throw him into the water,
or that, as he was reeling home at midnight, the treacherous divinity
of the bowl should have handed him over to the embrace