Far from home, far from any help or
consolation; far from the probability even of my wretched fate being
ever known to any one who cared to hear it--oh, that you would let me
say, of being known to you!'
The old man looked at Mr Pecksniff. Mr Pecksniff looked at him. 'Did
you speak, my worthy sir?' said Mr Pecksniff, with a smile. The old man
answered in the negative. 'I know what you thought,' said Mr Pecksniff,
with another smile. 'Let him go on my friend. The development of
self-interest in the human mind is always a curious study. Let him go
on, sir.'
'Go on!' observed the old man; in a mechanical obedience, it appeared,
to Mr Pecksniff's suggestion.
'I have been so wretched and so poor,' said Martin, 'that I am indebted
to the charitable help of a stranger, in a land of strangers, for the
means of returning here. All this tells against me in your mind, I know.
I have given you cause to think I have been driven here wholly by want,
and have not been led on, in any degree, by affection or regret. When
I parted from you, Grandfather, I deserved that suspicion, but I do not
now.
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