Martin Chuzzlewit

DAUGHTERS TO THE CITY OF LONDON; AND REL

and pulled up both windows-it is always satisfactory to feel, in keen weather, that many other people are not as warm as you are. And this, he said, was quite natural, and a very beautiful arrangement; not confined to coaches, but extending itself into many social ramifications. 'For' (he observed), 'if every one were warm and well-fed, we should lose the

. That he might the better feed and cherish that sacred flame of gratitude in his breast, Mr Pecksniff remarked that he would trouble his eldest daugh

cksniff, 'but coaches? So

Pa!' crie

mphasis, 'are slow coaches; some of us are fast coaches.

h the daughters at once

may be said to have exhibited, at the moment a sort of moral rampancy himself;'-and

ment. When he had done that, he corked the bottle tight, with the air of a man

mon lot of humanity found himself, at the end of his nap, so decidedly the victim of these infirmities, that he had an irresistible inclination to visit them upon his daughters; w

nside, because the roof is full, but you agree only to charge us ou

sir,' replie

y inside now?' i

gers,' return

is bargain, if they will be so good,' said the

n the vehicle, which was solemnly licensed by Act of Parliam

'And a great stroke of policy in you to observe it. He, he, he! W

ether the cold had effected his temper; is doubtful. But he gave his father such a nudge in reply, that that good old gentleman was taken with a cough

y no room in this coach for any g

after a moment's pause, 'i

f the speaker; the presence of his son; and his knowledge of Mr Pecksn

wit and his son Mr Jonas-for they, my dear children, are our travelling companions-will excuse me for an apparently harsh remark. It is not my desire to

day. I am sure I felt that to be agreed upon among us, or I shouldn't have called you one. We should not have been there at all, if we had n

, my good sir;

e a way with you, as if you-he, he, he!-as if you really believed yourself. I'd lay a handsome wager now,' said the old man, 'if I laid wagers, which I don't and never did, that you keep up appear

leman, as if he had received the highest

to London, Mr Pecksn

London. We shall have the pleasure

father that,' said Jonas. 'I a

country, watching the sale of certain eligible investments, which they had had in their copartnership eye when they came down; for it was their custom, Mr Jonas said, whenever such a thing was practicable, to kill two birds with one stone, and never to throw away sprats, but as bait for whales. When he had communicated to

e beginning, his training may be said to have been unexceptionable. One of these flaws was, that having been long taught by his father to over-reach everybody, he had imperceptibly acquired a love of over-reaching that venerable monitor himself. The other, that from his early habits of considering everythi

e we are cousins, you know, a few tim

e, pinching her sister's arm at the

cousin!' said Mr Jonas, sl

d having given him this answer with great demureness she was so overcome by he

ashamed of you. How can you go on so? You wild thing!'

Jonas, addressing Charity. 'But you're the one to

shall die outright if he talks to me any more; I shall, positively!' To prevent which fatal consequence, the buoya

Jonas. 'I like to be crowded by g

you, sir,'

at my father, I shouldn't wonder. If he puts on that old flannel nightcap

Mr J

o good?' said the young gentleman.

this friendly office, Mr Jonas did

ng out, I know.-Do you ever have the nightmare, cousin?' he asked his n

nswered Charit

nas, after a pause. 'Does s

lied Charity. 'You

alking to her. Only hark how she's a-going

t!' crie

are! You kn

' said Miss Charity. But

if she does at all,' rejoined her

r two remarks on the extreme heaviness of the coach, and the number of places it stopped at,

urable to the superior plumpness of the younger sister. He allowed himself no great leisure for this kind of observation, however, being busily engaged with the supper, which, as he whispered in his fair companion's ear, was a contract business, and therefore the more she ate, the better

ere being a chance of their getting more spirit out of the innkeeper under this arrangement than if it were all in one glass. Having swallowed his share of the enlivening fluid, Mr Pecksniff, under pre

heir old places and jogged on again. But before he composed himself for

when regaling on my humble fare, that I am putting in motion the most beautiful machinery with which we have any acquaintance. I really feel at such times as if I was doing a public service. When I have wo

said; and Mr Pecksniff, exulting, it may be pre

s how-in their sleep. The coach stopped and went on, and went on and stopped, times out of number. Passengers got up and passengers got down, and fresh horses came and went and came again, with scarcely any interval between each team as it seemed to those who we

morning, though for any signs of day yet appearing in the sky it might have been midnight. There was a dense fog too; as if it were a city in the clouds, which they had been travelling t

st alleys and under the blindest archways, in a kind of frenzy; now skipping over a kennel, now running for his life from a coach and horses; now thinking he had lost his way, now thinking he had found it; now in a state of the highest confidence, now despondent to the last degree, but always in a great p

ce, even among the choice collection of dingy edifices at hand; on the front of which was a li

hain and some bolts were withdrawn with a rusty noise, as if the weather had made the very fastenings hoarse, and a small boy with a large red head, and no nose to spe

my man?' aske

a-bed; all calling for their boots at once. I thought you was the Paper, and wond

d in something of a defiant manner. But Mr Pecksniff, without taking umbrage at his bearing put a card in h

ound-floor, where a table-cloth (rather a tight and scanty fit in reference to the table it covered) was already spread for breakfast; displaying a mighty dish of pink boiled bee

ir of short black gaiters, on one of which was chalked-in sport, it would appear, by some gentleman who had slipped down for the purpose, pending

evergreens, and flourished in immortal strength. The parlour was wainscoted, and communicated to strangers a magnetic and instinctive consciousness of rats and mice. The staircase was very gloomy and very broad, with balustrades so thick and heavy that they would have served for a bridge. In a sombre corner on the first landing, stood a gruff old giant of a clock, with a preposterous coronet of three brass balls on his head; whom few had ever seen-none ever looked in the face-and who seemed to continue his heavy tick f

at the fire ten minutes, when the sound of feet was heard upon the

u couldn't call it a cap exactly-which looked like a black cobweb. She had a little basket on her arm, and in it a bunch of keys that jingled as she came. In her other hand she bore a

ho would have thought of such a visit as this, after so-

as ever;' Mr Pecksniff made response. 'W

said Mrs Todgers. 'You

iff, stretching out his hand towards the y

sing her hands and clasping them. 'Oh, no, Mr

ook his head; and said, 'My daughter

I look at 'em I think I should have known 'em anywhere.

lings or the inclemency of the morning, jerked a little pocket hand

hat you only receive gentlemen boarders. But it occurred to me, when I left home, that

Mrs Todgers ecsta

'I know that you have a little room of your own, and that they c

Todgers. 'I must take t

on of one bed, which would now be occupied by Mr Pecksniff, she wanted time for consideration; and so much time too (for it was a knotty point how to dispose of them), t

at length. 'A sofa bedstead in the little third room

ghly probable, seeing that she had never beheld that lady), but that she rather thought the youngest was; and then she said th

t, for it commanded at a perspective of two feet, a brown wall with a black cistern on the top. The sleeping apartment designed for the young ladies was approached from this chamber by a mightily convenient little door, whi

tching figures on his corduroys with burnt firewood), and being afterwards taken by that lady in the fact, was dismissed with a box on his ears. Having prepared break

id Mr Pecksniff, looking in at the

n much of it, P

said Cherry. (Bot

e have our pleasure, and our business too, b

ssional as he had given his new pupil to understand, we shall s