You're Telling Me!

Mr. Smith: It must've been one of these damn fool rumour-spreaders. I can't think who invents these stories!

Mr. Harper: I don't think anyone really invents them - they just grow. Someone hear something and passes it on. Everyone likes to feel 'in the know', so he adds a bit of his own. Once a story get started, you can't stop it. The man who told you probably firmly believed that Harper's was in ruins. Someone told him and he repeated what he *thought* he had heard. So of course you believed him. And I would've believed you, only, my name happens to be Harper.