"I was born in the country, and when I
was fourteen, my father apprenticed me to the watchmaking. He was
well off--my father was--and when I was out of my time he set me up
in business in Liverpool. It was a business as had been established
some time--a fairish business it was. But when I came to Liverpool I
felt dull."
"What do you mean by dull? Stupid?"
"No, not exactly that. You know what dull means, don't you?--low-
spirited like--got nothing to talk about. Well, I can't tell how it
come about, but I was always dull, and have been so ever since. I
got married soon after I was settled. My wife was a good sort of
woman, but she wasn't cheerful, and she wasn't very strong. Somehow
the business fell off. Customers as used to come didn't come, and I
got no new ones. I did my work pretty well; but still, for all that,
things went down and down by degrees. I never could make out why,
except that people liked to be talked to, and I had nothing
particular to say to any of them when they came in. The shop, too,
ought to have been painted more often, and I ought to have had
something in the window, but, as I say, I was always dull, and my
wife wasn't strong.
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