Mr. Tigg added this condition to his memorandum; read the entry over to himself with a severe frown; and that the transaction might be the more correct and business-like, appended his initials to the whole. That done, he assured Mr. Pinch that everything was now perfectly regular; and, after squeezing his hand with g.eat fervour, departed.
Tom entertained enough suspicion that Martin might possibly turn this interview into a jest, to render him desirous to avoid the company of that young gentleman for the present. With this view he took a few turns up and down the skittle-ground, and did not re-enter the house until Mr. Tigg and his friend had quitted it, and the new pupil and Mark were watching their departure from one of the windows.
`I was just a-saying, sir, that if one could live by it,' observed Mark, pointing after their late guests, `that would be the sort of service for me. Waiting on such individuals as them would be better than grave- digging, sir.'
`And staying here would be better than either, Mark,' replied Tom. `So take my advice, and continue to swim easily in smooth water.'
`It's too late to take it now, sir,' said Mark. `I have broke it to her, sir. I am off to-morrow morning.'
`Off!' cried Mr. Pinch, `where to?'
`I shall go up to London, sir.'
`What to be?' asked Mr. Pinch.
`Well! I don't know yet, sir. Nothing turned up that day I opened my mind to you, as was at all likely to suit me. All them trades I thought of was a deal too jolly; there was no credit at all to be got in any of 'em. I must look for a private service, I suppose, sir. I might be brought out strong, perhaps, in a serious family, Mr. Pinch.'
`Perhaps you might come out rather too strong for a serious family's taste, Mark.'
`That's possible, sir. If I could get into a wicked family, I might do myself justice: but the difficulty is to make sure of one's ground, because a young man can't very well advertise that he wants a place, and wages an't so much an object as a wicked situation; can he, sir?'
`Why, no,' said Mr. Pinch, `I don't think he can.'
`An envious family,' pursued Mark, with a thoughtful face; `or a quarrelsome family, or a malicious family, or even a good out-and-out mean family, would open a field of action as I might do something in. The man as would have suited me of all other men was that old gentleman as was took ill here, for he really was a trying customer. Howsever, I must wait and see what turns up, sir; and hope for the worst.'
`You are determined to go then?' said Mr. Pinch.
`My box is gone already, sir, by the waggon, and I'm going to walk on to-morrow morning, and get a lift by the day coach when it overtakes me. So I wish you good-bye, Mr. Pinch -- and you too, sir, -- and all good luck and happiness!'
They both returned his greeting laughingly, and walked home arm-in-arm. Mr. Pinch imparting to his new friend, as they went, such further particulars of Mark Tapley's whimsical restlessness as the reader is already acquainted with.
In the meantime Mark, having a shrewd notion that his mistress was in very low spirits, and that he could not exactly answer for the consequences of any lengthened tete-a-tete in the bar, kept himself obstinately out of her way all the afternoon and evening. In this piece of generalship he was very much