'Yes, sir,' he rejoined, looking straight before him and a long way off,
as men do sometimes when they cogitate profoundly. 'What's the use of my
stopping at the Dragon? It an't at all the sort of place for ME. When
I left London (I'm a Kentish man by birth, though), and took that
situation here, I quite made up my mind that it was the dullest little
out-of-the-way corner in England, and that there would be some credit in
being jolly under such circumstances. But, Lord, there's no dullness at
the Dragon! Skittles, cricket, quoits, nine-pins, comic songs, choruses,
company round the chimney corner every winter's evening. Any man could
be jolly at the Dragon. There's no credit in THAT.'

'But if common report be true for once, Mark, as I think it is, being
able to confirm it by what I know myself,' said Mr Pinch, 'you are the
cause of half this merriment, and set it going.'

'There may be something in that, too, sir,' answered Mark. 'But that's
no consolation.'

'Well!' said Mr Pinch, after a short silence, his usually subdued tone
being even now more subdued than ever. 'I can hardly think enough of
what you tell me. Why, what will become of Mrs Lupin, Mark?'

Mark looked more fixedly before him, and further off still, as he
answered that he didn't suppose it would be much of an object to her.
There were plenty of smart young fellows as would be glad of the place.
He knew a dozen himself.

'That's probable enough,' said Mr Pinch, 'but I am not at all sure that
Mrs Lupin would be glad of them. Why, I always supposed that Mrs Lupin
and you would make a match of it, Mark; and so did every one, as far as