Crepitude had to exercise all his self-control in order not to bully Priam.
"That is all," said Crepitude, after Priam had given his preposterous and halting explanations of the strange phenomena of his life after the death of Leek.

None of these carried conviction.

He merely said that the woman Leek was mistaken in identifying him as her husband; he inferred that she was hysterical; this inference alienated him from the audience completely.

His statement that he had no definite reason for pretending to be Leek--that it was an impulse of the moment--was received with mute derision.

His explanation, when questioned as to the evidence of the hotel officials, that more than once his valet Leek had gone about impersonating his master, seemed grotesquely inadequate.
People wondered why Crepitude had made no reference to the moles.