`` You 're particular , for a shade . '' He was going to say '' to a shade , '' but substituted this , as more appropriate . `` In life I was your partner , Jacob Marley . '' `` Can you -- can you sit down ? '' asked Scrooge , looking doubtfully at him . `` I can . '' `` Do it , then . '' Scrooge asked the question , because he did n't know whether a ghost so transparent might find himself in a condition to take a chair ; and felt that , in the event of its being impossible , it might involve the necessity of an embarrassing explanation . But the Ghost sat down on the opposite side of the fire-place , as if he were quite used to it . `` You do n't believe in me , '' observed the Ghost . `` I do n't , '' said Scrooge . `` What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your own senses ? '' `` I do n't know , '' said Scrooge . `` Why do you doubt your senses ? '' `` Because , '' said Scrooge , `` a little thing affects them . A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats . You may be an undigested bit of beef , a blot of mustard , a crumb of cheese , a fragment of an underdone potato . There 's more of gravy than of grave about you , whatever you are ! '' Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes , nor did he feel in his heart by any means waggish then . The truth is , that he tried to be smart , as a means of distracting his own attention , and keeping down his terror ; for the spectre 's voice disturbed the very marrow in his bones .
To sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence , for a moment , would play , XXXXX felt , the very deuce with him .
Marley Scrooge chair event evidence fire-place partner question reality terror