The Green Dragon pub is where Paul Carpenter and Sophie Pettingell’s love-potion scheme becomes a public event. Across the road, it offers a place to put their plan into action—and a stage where its consequences quickly become difficult to control.

Setting and Approach

Sophie spots Ashford Clent and his client going into the Green Dragon, on the other side of the road. She tells Paul to wait while she returns to her room, explaining that they will then buy the next Mrs Clent a drink. The pub thus enters the plan not as a chance encounter but as the chosen setting for approaching the pair after the potion has taken effect.

The Potion’s Effect

Inside the pub, Paul finds the nerve to approach two strangers holding glasses of champagne. He gives them a false explanation for the invitation: he has just won the Lottery. They accept his offer, and Clent reveals that they are celebrating their engagement. As Paul hurries out, the future Mrs Clent’s head hits the table. Her sudden collapse shows how quickly the potion has worked—and makes the celebratory pub scene abruptly alarming.

Recovery and Consequences

Paul and Sophie return twenty minutes later to check what has happened. Someone has called a doctor, and the client begins to come round in his presence. Sophie distracts the doctor by drawing his attention to Clent; when the client opens her eyes, Clent is leaning over her. The scheme’s apparent success rests on this fast intervention as much as on the potion: without Sophie’s distraction, the doctor might have interrupted the moment that directs the client’s attention to Clent.

The pair sprint across the street afterward. Sophie says she will dispose of the remaining potion at the hotel, while Paul privately weighs the scheme against his own dreams and happiness, admitting that achieving them through cheating would not feel the same. The Green Dragon therefore marks both a turning point in the potion plot and a moral one for Paul: the desired outcome appears within reach, but its means trouble him.