“Now, you hear what this gentleman says, Mr. Mell. Have the goodness, if you please, to set him right before the assembled school.”

“He is right, sir, without correction,” returned Mr. Mell, in the midst of a dead silence; “what he has said is true.”

“Be so good then as declare publicly, will you,” said Mr. Creakle, putting his head on one side, and rolling his eyes round the school, “whether it ever came to my knowledge until this moment?”

“I believe not directly,” he returned.

“Why, you know not,” said Mr. Creakle. “Don’t you, man?”