‘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 that I had said “Yes” to both. That’s all, sir.’
His frankness was so genuine that it plainly was all.
‘Perhaps,’ said Martin, ‘he may think you are going to desert him, and to serve me?’
‘I have served him in that sort of way, sir,’ replied Mark, without the loss of any atom of his self-possession; ‘and we have been that sort of companions in misfortune, that my opinion is, he don’t believe a word on it. No more than you do, sir.’
‘Will you help me to dress, and get me some breakfast from the hotel?’ asked Martin.
‘With pleasure, sir,’ said Mark.
‘And by-and-bye,’ said Martin, ‘remaining in the room, as I wish you to do, will you attend to the door yonder—give admission to visitors, I mean, when they knock?’
‘Certainly, sir,’ said Mr Tapley.