 got crusted over, somehow. I can't say who rolled the
paste of that 'ere crust myself, but -«
    »Go on,« said Martin. »Why do you stop?«
    »But it - well! I beg your pardon, but I think it may have been you, sir.
Unintentional I think it may have been you. I don't believe that neither of you
gave the other quite a fair chance. There! Now I've got rid on it,« said Mr.
Tapley in a fit of desperation: »I can't go a carryin' it about in my own mind,
bustin' myself with it; yesterday was quite long enough. It's out now. I can't
help it. I'm sorry for it. Don't wisit it on him, sir, that's all.«
    It was clear that Mark expected to be ordered out immediately, and was quite
prepared to go.
    »So you think,« said Martin, »that his old faults are, in some degree, of my
creation, do you?«
    »Well, sir,« retorted Mr. Tapley, »I'm wery sorry, but I can't unsay it.
It's hardly fair of you, sir, to make a ignorant man conwict himself in this
way, but I do think so. I am as respectful disposed to you, sir, as a man can
be; but I do think so.«
    The light of a faint smile seemed to break through the dull steadiness of
Martin's face, as he looked attentively at him, without replying.
    »Yet you are an ignorant man, you say,« he observed after a long pause.
    »Wery much so,« Mr. Tapley replied.
    »And I a learned, well-instructed man, you think?«
    »Likewise wery much so,« Mr. Tapley answered.
    The old man, with his chin resting on his hand, paced the room twice or
thrice before he added:
    »You have left him this morning?«
    »Come straight from him now, sir.«
    »For what: does he suppose?«
    »He don't know what to suppose, sir, no more than myself. I told him jest
wot passed yesterday, sir, and that you had said to me, Can you be here by seven
in the morning? and that you had said to him, through me, Can you be here by ten
in the morning? and
