Quotation from: The Professor

Written by: Charlotte Bronte

"Whence do you acquire the knowledge of my patience?"

"Why, man, do you suppose you are a mystery? The other night you
seemed surprised at my knowing to what family you belonged; now
you find subject for wonderment in my calling you patient. What
do you think I do with my eyes and ears? I've been in your
counting-house more than once when Crimsworth has treated you
like a dog; called for a book, for instance, and when you gave
him the wrong one, or what he chose to consider the wrong one,
flung it back almost in your face; desired you to shut or open
the door as if you had been his flunkey; to say nothing of your
position at the party about a month ago, where you had neither
place nor partner, but hovered about like a poor, shabby
hanger-on; and how patient you were under each and all of these
circumstances!"