I was saved by Buckling's intervention

Mustard-and-cress and radishes not come up yet. Today was a day of annoyances. I missed the quarter-to-nine bus to the City, through having words with the grocer's boy, who for the second time had the impretinence to bring his basket to the hall-door, and had left the marks of his dirty boots on the fresh-cleaned door-steps. He said he had knocked at the side door with his knuckles for a quarter of an hour. I knew Sarah, our servant, could not hear this, as she was upstairs doing the bedrooms, so asked the boy why he did not ring the bell? He replied that he did pull the bell, but the handle came off in is hand.

I was half-an-hour late at office, a thing that has never happened in the attendance of the clerks, and Mr.Perkupp, our principal, unfortunately choose this very morning to pounce down upon us early. Someone had given the tip to others. The result was that I was only one late of the lot. Bucking, one of the senior clerks, was a brick, and I was saved by his intervention. As I passed by Pitt's desk, I heard him remark to his neighbour:" How disgracefully late some of the head clerks arrive!" This was, of course, meat for me. I treated the observation with silence, simply giving him a look, which unfortunately had the effect of making both of the clerks laugh. Though afterwards it would have been more dignified if I had pretnded not to have heard him at all. Cumming called in the evening, and we played dominoes.