But the privilege
remained without a claimant.
2
The events that led up to this 'duel in the dark'
were simple enough. One evening three young men
of the town of Marshall were sitting in a quiet corner
of the porch of the village hotel, smoking and dis-
cussing such matters as three educated young men
of a Southern village would naturally find interesting.
Their names were King, Sancher and Rosser. At a
little distance, within easy hearing, but taking no
part in the conversation, sat a fourth. He was a
stranger to the others. They merely knew that on his
arrival by the stage-coach that afternoon he had
written in the hotel register the name Robert
Grossmith. He had not been observed to speak to
anyone except the hotel clerk. He seemed, indeed,
singularly fond of his own company--or, as the
personnel of the Advance expressed it, 'grossly ad-
dicted to evil associations.' But then it should be
said in justice to the stranger that the personnel
was himself of a too convivial disposition fairly
to judge one differently gifted, and had, moreover,
experienced a slight rebuff in an effort at an
'interview.'
'I hate any kind of deformity in a woman,' said
King, 'whether natural or--acquired. I have a
theory that any physical defect has its correlative
mental and moral defect.'
'I infer, then,' said Rosser gravely, 'that a
lady lacking the moral advantage of a nose would
find the struggle to become Mrs.
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