The spectacle was making Mrs.Marsh very uncomfortable.

She had the look of one who hopes against hope that the impossible may happen.

But as the impossible did not happen, she finally ventured to speak up and remind her husband that Nat Brady hadn't been helped to the Irish stew.
Marsh lifted his head and gasped out with mock courtliness, "Oh, he hasn't, hasn't he?
What a pity that is.

I don't know how I came to overlook him.

Ah, he must pardon me.