'Mr Pinch,' said Pecksniff, taking up his handkerchief, as if he felt
that he should want it soon, 'I will not dwell upon the past. I will
spare you, and I will spare myself, that pain at least.'
Tom's was not a very bright eye, but it was a very expressive one when
he looked at Mr Pecksniff, and said:
'Thank you, sir. I am very glad you will not refer to the past.'
'The present is enough,' said Mr Pecksniff, dropping a penny, 'and
the sooner THAT is past, the better. Mr Pinch, I will not dismiss
you without a word of explanation. Even such a course would be quite
justifiable under the circumstances; but it might wear an appearance of
hurry, and I will not do it; for I am,' said Mr Pecksniff, knocking down
another penny, 'perfectly self-possessed. Therefore I will say to you,
what I have already said to Mr Chuzzlewit.'
Tom glanced at the old gentleman, who nodded now and then as approving
of Mr Pecksniff's sentences and sentiments, but interposed between them
in no other way.
'From fragments of a conversation which I overheard in the church, just
now, Mr Pinch,' said Pecksniff, 'between yourself and Miss Graham--I say
fragments, because I was slumbering at a considerable distance from you,
when I was roused by your voices--and from what I saw, I ascertained (I
would have given a great deal not to have ascertained, Mr Pinch) that
you, forgetful of all ties of duty and of honour, sir; regardless of the
sacred laws of hospitality, to which you were pledged as an inmate
of this house; have presumed to address Miss Graham with unreturned
professions of attachment and proposals of love.
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