s all very right and proper
to be fond of parents when we have them, and to bear them in remembrance after
they're dead, if you have ever known anything of them. But as I never did know
anything about mine personally, you know, why I can't be expected to be very
sentimental about 'em. And I am not: that's the truth.«
    Mr. Pinch was just then looking thoughtfully at the bars. But on his
companion pausing in this place, he started, and said »Oh! of course« and
composed himself to listen again.
    »In a word,« said Martin, »I have been bred and reared all my life by this
grandfather of whom I have just spoken. Now, he has a great many good points;
there is no doubt about that; I'll not disguise the fact from you; but he has
two very great faults, which are the staple of his bad side. In the first place,
he has the most confirmed obstinacy of character you ever met with in any human
creature. In the second, he is most abominably selfish.«
    »Is he indeed?« cried Tom.
    »In those two respects,« returned the other, »there never was such a man. I
have often heard from those who know, that they have been, time out of mind, the
failings of our family; and I believe there's some truth in it. But I can't say
of my own knowledge. All I have to do, you know, is to be very thankful that
they haven't descended to me, and to be very careful that I don't contract 'em.«
    »To be sure,« said Mr. Pinch. »Very proper.«
    »Well, sir,« resumed Martin, stirring the fire once more, and drawing his
chair still closer to it, »his selfishness makes him exacting, you see; and his
obstinacy makes him resolute in his exactions. The consequence is that he has
always exacted a great deal from me in the way of respect, and submission, and
self-denial when his wishes were in question, and so forth. I have borne a great
deal from him, because I have been under obligations to him (if one can ever be
said to be under obligations to one's own grandfather), and because I have been
really attached to him; but we have had a great many quarrels for all that, for
I could not accommodate myself to his ways
