"There's a fire in the kitchen," said Mrs. Lupin, "and very good company there. Hadn't you better go and dry yourself?"
"No, thankee," said the man, glancing towards the kitchen as he spoke: he seemed to know the way,
"It's enough to give you your death of cold," observed the hostess.
"I don't take my death easy," returned the traveller; "or I should most likely have took it afore to-night. Your health, ma'am!"
Mrs. Lupin thanked him; but in the act of lifting the tankard to his mouth, he changed his mind, and put it down again. Throwing his body back, and looking about him stiffly, as a man does who is wrapped up, and has his hat low down over his eyes, he said,
"What do you call this house? Not the Dragon, do you?"
Mrs. Lupin complacently made answer, "Yes, the Dragon."
"Why, then, you 've got a sort of relation of mine here, ma'am," said the traveller: "a young man of the name of Tapley. What! Mark, my boy!" apostrophising the premises, "have I come upon you at last, old buck!"
This was touching Mrs. Lupin on a tender point. She turned to trim the candle on the chimney-piece, and said, with her back towards the traveller:
"Nobody should be made more welcome at the Dragon, master, than any one who brought me news of Mark. But it's many and many a long day and month since he left here and England. And whether he's alive or dead, poor fellow. Heaven above us only knows!"
She shook her head, and her voice trembled; her hand must have done so too, for the light required a deal of trimming.
"Where did he go, ma'am?" asked the traveller, in a gentler voice.
"He went," said Mrs. Lupin, with increased distress, "to America. He was always tender-hearted and kind, and perhaps at this moment may be lying in prison under sentence of death, for taking pity on some miserable black, and helping the poor runaway creetur to escape. How could he ever go to America! Why didn't he go to some of those countries which are not quite barbarous; where the savages eat each other fairly, and give an equal chance to every one!"
Quite subdued by this time, Mrs. Lupin sobbed, and was retiring to a chair to give her grief free vent, when the traveller caught her in his arms, and she uttered a glad cry of recognition.
"Yes, I will!" cried Mark, "another—one more—twenty more! You didn't know me in that hat and coat? I thought you would have known me anywhere! Ten more!"
"So I should have known you, if I could have seen you; but I couldn't, and you spoke so gruff. I didn't think you could speak gruff to me, Mark, at first coming back."
"Fifteen more!" said Mr. Tapley. "How handsome and how young you look! Six more! The last half-dozen warn't a fair one, and must be done over again. Lord bless you, what a treat it is to see you! One more! Well, I never was so jolly. Just a few more, on account of there not being any credit in it!"
When Mr. Tapley stopped in these calculations in simple addition,
