t him in London. Pecksniff was so anxious to
curry favor with the rich old man that, taking his daughters with him,
he left at once for London, where they put up at a boarding-house kept
by a Mrs. Todgers, while Pecksniff awaited the arrival of old
Chuzzlewit.

Mrs. Todgers's house smelled of cabbage and greens and mice, and Mrs.
Todgers herself was bony and wore a row of curls on the front of her
head like little barrels of flour. But a number of young men boarded
there, and Charity and Mercy enjoyed themselves very much.

One whom they met on this trip to London was a remote relative of
theirs, a nephew of old Chuzzlewit's, named Jonas. Jonas's father was
eighty years old and a miser, and the son, too, was so mean and grasping
that he often used to wish his father were dead so he would have his
money.

The old father, indeed, would have had no friend in his own house but
for an old clerk, Chuffey, who had been his schoolmate in boyhood and
had always lived with him. Chuffey was as old and dusty and rusty as if
he had been put away and forgotten fifty years before and some one had
just found him in a lumber closet. But in his own way Chuffey loved his
master.

Jonas called on the two Pecksniff daughters, and Charity, the elder,
determined to marry him. Jonas, however, had his own opinion, and made
up his mind to marry Mercy, her younger sister.

Before long old Chuzzlewit reached London, and when Pecksniff called he
told him his grandson, Martin, was an ingrate, who had left his
protection, and asked the architect not to harbor him. Pecksniff, who
worshiped the other's money and would have betrayed his best friend for
old Chuzzlewit's favor, returned home instantly, heaped harsh names upon
Martin and ordered him to leave his house at once.

Martin guessed what had caused Pecksniff to change his mind so suddenly,
and with hearty contempt for his truckling action, he left that very
hour in the rain, though he had only a single silver piece in his
pocket. Tom Pinch, in great grief for his trouble, ran after him with a
book as a parting gift, and between its leaves Martin found another
silver piece--all Tom had.

Most of the way to London Martin walked. Once there he took a cheap
lodging, and tried to find some vessel on which he could work his
passage to America, for there, as he walked, he had made up his mind to
go. But he found no such opportunity. His money gone, he pawned first
his watch and then his other b