he 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 sitivation; 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 mi