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.
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