The real honors of the day belonged to Lintot, who, I am convinced, was ready to act the David to that Goliath. He had the real stomach for fighting, which I lacked, as very tall men are often said to do.
And that, perhaps, is why I have made so much of my not very wonderful prowess on that occasion; not, indeed, that I am physically a coward—at least, I do not think so. If I thought I were I should avow it with no more shame than I should avow that I had a bad digestion, or a weak heart, which makes cowards of us all.
It is that I hate a row, and violence, and bloodshed, even from a nose—any nose, either my own or my neighbor’s.
* * * * *
There are slums at the east end of London that many fashionable people know something of by this time; I got to know them by heart. In addition to t
