I'm full of genius; I'm full of information; I'm full of novel views on every subject; yet look at my condition! I'm at this moment obliged to two strangers for a tavern bill!' Mr Tigg replenished his friend's glass, pressed it into his hand, and nodded an intimation to the visitors that they would see him in a better aspect immediately.
'Obliged to two strangers for a tavern bill, eh!' repeated Mr Slyme, after a sulky application to his glass.

'Very pretty! And crowds of impostors, the while, becoming famous; men who are no more on a level with me than--Tigg, I take you to witness that I am the most persecuted hound on the face of the earth.' With a whine, not unlike the cry of the animal he named, in its lowest state of humiliation, he raised his glass to his mouth again.

He found some encouragement in it; for when he set it down he laughed scornfully.
Upon that Mr Tigg gesticulated to the visitors once more, and with great expression, implying that now the time was come when they would see Chiv in his greatness.
'Ha, ha, ha,' laughed Mr Slyme.

'Obliged to two strangers for a tavern bill! Yet I think I've a rich uncle, Tigg, who could buy up the uncles of fifty strangers! Have I, or have I not?
I come of a good family, I believe! Do I, or do I not?
I'm not a man of common capacity or accomplishments, I think! Am I, or am I not ?' 'You are the American aloe of the human race, my dear Chiv,' said Mr Tigg, 'which only blooms once in a hundred years!' 'Ha, ha, ha!' laughed Mr Slyme again.

'Obliged to two strangers for a tavern bill! I obliged to two architect's apprentices.