Stung into action for the second time by the startling assertion of
which he had been made the subject, Geoffrey rose, and looked the
surgeon, steadily and insolently, straight in the face.

"Do you mean what you say?" he asked.

"Yes."

"You point me out before all these people--"

"One moment, Mr. Delamayn. I admit that I may have been wrong in
directing the general attention to you. You have a right to complain of
my having answered too publicly the public challenge offered to me by
your friends. I apologize for having done that. But I don't retract a
single word of what I have said on the subject of your health."

"You stick to it that I'm a broken-down man?"

"I do."

"I wish you were twenty years younger, Sir!"

"Why?"

"I'd ask you to step out on the lawn there and I'd show you whether I'm
a broken-down man or not."

Lady Lundie looked at her brother-in-law. Sir Patrick instantly
interfered.