 out at Calcutta or any inhabited region on
the other side of the earth, would have done it instantly. Mr. Pecksniff sat
down upon a hassock, and listening more attentively than ever, smiled.
    Mary seemed to have expressed some dissent in the meanwhile, for Tom went on
to say, with honest energy:
    »Well, I don't know how it is, but it always happens, whenever I express
myself in this way, to anybody almost, that I find they won't do justice to
Pecksniff. It is one of the most extraordinary circumstances that ever came
within my knowledge, but it is so. There's John Westlock, who used to be a pupil
here, one of the best-hearted young men in the world, in all other matters: I
really believe John would have Pecksniff flogged at the cart's tail if he could.
And John is not a solitary case, for every pupil we have had in my time has gone
away with the same inveterate hatred of him. There was Mark Tapley, too, quite
in another station of life,« said Tom: »the mockery he used to make of Pecksniff
when he was at the Dragon was shocking. Martin too: Martin was worse than any of
'em. But I forgot. He prepared you to dislike Pecksniff, of course. So you came
with a prejudice, you know, Miss Graham, and are not a fair witness.«
    Tom triumphed very much in this discovery, and rubbed his hands with great
satisfaction.
    »Mr. Pinch,« said Mary, »you mistake him.«
    »No, no!« cried Tom. »You mistake him. But,« he added, with a rapid change
in his tone, »what is the matter? Miss Graham, what is the matter?«
    Mr. Pecksniff brought up to the top of the pew, by slow degrees, his hair,
his forehead, his eyebrow, his eye. She was sitting on a bench beside the door
with her hands before her face; and Tom was bending over her.
    »What is the matter!« cried Tom. »Have I said anything to hurt you? Has any
one said anything to hurt you? Don't cry. Pray tell me what it is. I cannot bear
to see you so distressed. Mercy on us, I never was so surprised and grieved in
all my life!«
    Mr. Pecksniff kept his eye in the same place. He could have moved it now for
nothing short of a gimlet or a red-
