I should have
thought that, certainly.'
'I tell you, then,' rejoined Martin, 'you would have thought wrong, and
do think wrong.'
'Very likely, sir,' said Mark, with imperturbable good temper. 'I often
do.'
'As to lying here,' cried Martin, raising himself on his elbow, and
looking angrily at his follower. 'Do you suppose it's a pleasure to lie
here?'
'All the madhouses in the world,' said Mr Tapley, 'couldn't produce such
a maniac as the man must be who could think that.'
'Then why are you forever goading and urging me to get up?' asked
Martin, 'I lie here because I don't wish to be recognized, in the better
days to which I aspire, by any purse-proud citizen, as the man who came
over with him among the steerage passengers. I lie here because I wish
to conceal my circumstances and myself, and not to arrive in a new world
badged and ticketed as an utterly poverty-stricken man. If I could have
afforded a passage in the after-cabin I should have held up my head with
the rest. As I couldn't I hide it. Do you understand that?'
'I am very sorry, sir,' said Mark. 'I didn't know you took it so much to
heart as this comes to.
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