You must indeed Mr--er--Baxter-- Barker, you must pardon me.

I--er--my attention was directed to some other matter, I don't know what.

The thing that grieves me mainly is, that it happens every meal now.

But you must try to overlook these little things, Mr.Bunker, these little neglects on my part.

They're always likely to happen with me in any case, and they are especially likely to happen where a person has--er--well, where a person is, say, about three weeks in arrears for his board.