Read "Tommy and Grizel" by James Matthew Barrie online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The moment for which he had tried to prepare himself was come, and Tommy gulped down his courage, which had risen suddenly to his mouth, leaving his chest in a panic. Outwardly he seemed unmoved, but within he was beating to arms. "This is the test of us! " all that was good in him cried as it answered his summons.
They began by shaking hands, as is always the custom in the ring. Then, without any preliminary sparring, Lady Pippinworth immediately knocked him down; that is to say, she remarked, with a little laugh: "How very stout you are getting!"