conceive where such a gentlemanly creature
could have picked the knowledge up.

When he had made a kind of dirt-pie under
the direction of the mason, they brought a little
vase containing coins, the which the member of
the Gentlemanly Interest jingled, as if he were
going to conjure. Whereat they said how droll,
how cheerful, what a flow of spirits ! This put
into its place, an ancient scholar read the inscrip-
tion, which was in Latin : not in English : that
would never do. It gave great satisfaction ;
especially every time there was a good long sub-
stantive in the third declension, ablative case,
with an adjective to match â–  at which periods
the assembly became very tender, and were
much affected.

And now the stone was lowered down into its
place, amidst the shouting of the concourse.
When it was firmly fixed, the member for the
Gentlemanly Interest struck upon it thrice with
the handle of the trowel, as if inquiring, with a
touch of humour, whether anybody was at home.
Mr. Pecksniff then unrolled his Plans (prodigious
plans they were), and people gathered round to
look at and admire them.

Martin, who had been fretting himself — quite
unnecessarily, as Mark thought — during the
whole of these proceedings, could no longer
restrain his impatience ; but stepping forward
among several others, looked straight over the
shoulder of the unconscious Mr. Pecksniff, at
the designs and plans he had unrolled. He re-
turned to Mark, boiling with rage.

"Why, what's the matter, sir?" cried Mark.

" Matter ! This is tny building."

" Your building, sir !" said Mark.

" My grammar-school. I invented it. I did
it all. He has only put four windows in, the
villain, and spoilt it !"



THE GENTLEMANLY LNTEREST SPEAKS.



281



Mark could hardly believe it at first, but being-
assured that it was really so, actually held him
to prevent his interference foolishly, until his
temporary heat was passed. In the mean time,
the member addressed the company on the
gratifying deed which he had just performed.

He said that since he had sat in Parliament
to represent the Gentlemanly Interest of that
town ; and he might add, the Lady Interest he
hoped, besides (pocket handkerchiefs) ; it had
been his pleasant duty to come among them,



and to raise his voice on their behalf in Another
Place (pocket handkerchiefs and laughter), often.
But he had never come among them, and had
never raised his voice, with half such pure, such
deep, such unalloyed delight, as now. " The
present occasion," he said, " will ever be memor-
able to me : not only for the reasons I have
assigned, but because it has afforded me an
opportunity of becoming personally known to a
gentleman — "

Here he pointed the trowel to Mr. Pecksniff,




1 MR. PECKSNIFF.



PLACID, CALM, BUT PROUD. HONESTLY PROUD GENTLY TRAVELLING ACROSS

THE DISC, AS IF HE WERE A FIGURE IN A MAGIC LANTERN."



who was greeted with vociferous cheering, and
laid his hand upon his heart.

" To a gentleman who, I am happy to believe,
will reap both distinction and profit from this
fidd : whose fame had previously penetrated to
me — as to whose ears has it not ! — but whose
intellectual countenance I never had the dis-
tinguished honour to behold until this day, and
whose intellectual conversation I had never
before the improving pleasure to enjoy."

Everybody seemed very glad of this, and
applauded more than ever.

" But I hope my Honourable Friend," said
the Gentlemanly member — of course he added



' if he will allow me to call him so,' and of
course Mr. Pecksniff bowed — " will give me
many opportunities of cultivating the knowledge
of him ; and that I may have the extraordinary
gratification of reflecting in after time that I laid
on this day two first stones, both belonging to
structures which shall last my life ! "

Great cheering again. All this time, Martin
was cursing Mr. Pecksniff up hill and down dale.

" My friends !" said Mr. Pecksniff, in reply.
" My duty is to build, not speak ; to act, not
talk ; to deal with marble, stone, and brick : not
language. I am very much affected. God
bless you !"



CS2



MARTIN CHUZZLE WIT.



This address, pumped out apparently from
Mr. Pecksniff's very heart, brought the enthu-
siasm to its highest pitch. The pocket hand-
kerchiefs were waved again ; the charity chil-
dren were admonished to grow up Pecksniffs,
every boy among them ; the corporation, gen-
tlemen with wands, member for the Gentlemanly
Interest, all cheered for Mr. Pecksniff, Three
cheers for Mr. Pecksniff! Three more for Mr.
Pecksniff! Three more for Mr. Pecksniff, gen-
tlemen, if you please ! One more, gentlemen,
for Mr. Pecksniff, and let it be a good one to
finish with !

In short, Mr. Pecksniff was supposed to have
done a great work, and was very kindly, courte-
ously, and generously rewarded. When the pro-
cession moved away, and Martin and Mark were
left almost alone upon the ground, his merits and a
desire to acknowledge them formed the common
topic. He was only second to the Gentlemanly
member.

" Compare that fellow's situation to-day, with
ours ! " said Martin, bitterly.

"Lord bless you, sir !" cried Mark, "what's
the use ! Some architects are clever at making
foundations, and some architects are clever at
building on 'em when they're made. But it'll
all come right in the end, sir; it'll all come
right !"

" And in the mean time — " began Martin.
" In the mean time, as you say, sir, we have
a deal to do, and far to go. So sharp's the
word, and Jolly !"

" You are the best master in the world, Mark,"
said Martin, "and I will not be a bad scholar if
I can help it, I am resolved ! So come ! Best
foot foremost, old fellow ! "



CHAPTER XXXVI.

TOM PINCH DEPARTS TO SEEK HIS FORTUNE. WHAT
UK \- [NDS AT STAR'] I'.i,.

H ! what a different town Salisbury
was in Tom Pinch's eyes to be sure,
when the substantial Pecksniff of
his heart melted away into an idle
dream ! He possessed the same
faith in the wonderful shops, the
same intensified appreciation of the mys-
tery and wickedness of the place; made
the same exalted estimate of its wealth, popula-
tion and resources ; and yet it was not the old
city, nor anything like it. He walked into the
market while they were getting breakfast ready




for him at the Inn : and though it was the same
market as of old, crowded by the same buyers
and sellers ; brisk with the same business : noisy
with the same confusion of tongues and clutter-
ing of fowls in coops ; fair with the same display
of rolls of butter, newly made, set forth in linen
cloths of dazzling whiteness ; green with the
same fresh show of cK 3 tables; dainty

with the same array in hi baskets of small

shaving-glasses, laces, braces, trouser-straps, and
hardware ; savoury with the same unstinted show
of delicate pigs' feet, and pies made precious by
the pork that once had walked upon them : still
it was strangely changed to Tom. For, in the
centre of the market-place, he missed a statue
he had set up there, as in all other places of his
personal resort; and it looked cold and bare
without that ornament.

The change lay no deeper than this, for Tom
was far from being sage enough to know, that,
having been disappointed in one man, it would
have been a strictly rational and eminently
wise proceeding to have revenged himself upon
mankind in general, by mistrusting them one
and all. Indeed this piece of justice, though it
is upheld by the authority of divers profound
poets and honourable men, bears a nearer re-
semblance to the justice of that good Vizier in
the Thousand-and-one Nights, who issues orders
for the destruction of all the Porters in Bagdad
because one of that unfortunate fraternity is sup-
posed to have misconducted himself, than to
any logical, not to say Christian system of con-
duct, known to the world in later times.

Tom had so long been used to steep the Peck-
sniff of his fancy in his tea, and spread him out
upon his toast, and take him as a relish with his
beer, that he made but a poor breakfast on the
first morning after his expulsion. Nor did he
much improve his appetite for dinner by seriously
considering his own affairs, and taking counsel
thereon with his friend the organist's assistant.

The organist's assistant gave it as his decided
opinion that whatever Tom did, he must go to
London ; for there was no place like it. Which
may be true in the main, though hardly, perhaps,
in itself, a sufficient reason for Tom's going
theri .

But Tom had thought of London before, and
had coupled with it thoughts of his sister, and of
his old friend John Westlock, whose advice he
naturally felt disposed to seek in this important
crisis of his fortunes. To London, therefore, he
resolved to go ; and he went away to the coach-
office at once, to secure his place. The coach
being already full, he was obliged to postpone his
departure till the next night ; but even this cir-



BEGINNING TO SEE THE WORLD.



cumstance had its bright side as well as its dark
one, for though it threatened to reduce his poor
with unexpected country charges, it afforded
him an opportunity of writing to Mrs. Lupin and
appointing his box to be brought to the old-
finger post at the old time ; which would enable
him to take that treasure with him to the metro-
polis, and save the expense of its carriage. " So,"
said Tom, comforting himself, " it's very nearly
as broad as it's long."

And it cannot be denied that, when he had
made up his mind to even this extent, he felt an
unaccustomed sense of freedom — a vague and
indistinct impression of holiday-making — which
was very luxurious. He had his moments of
depression and anxiety, and they were, with good
reason, pretty numerous ; but still, it was won-
derfully pleasant to reflect that he was his own
master, and could plan and scheme for himself.
It was startling, thrilling, vast, difficult to under-
stand ; it was a stupendous truth, teeming with '
responsibility and self-distrust; but, in spite of
all his cares, it gave a curious relish to the viands
at the Inn, and interposed a dreamy haze be-
tween him and his prospects, in which they
sometimes showed to magical advantage.

In this unsettled state of mind, Tom went
once more to bed in the low four-poster, to the
same immovable surprise of the effigies of the
former landlord and the fat ox ; and in this con-
dition, passed the whole of the succeeding day.
When the coach came round at last, with
" London " blazoned in letters of gold upon the
boot, it gave Tom such a turn, that he was half
disposed to run away. But he didn't do it ; for
he took his seat upon the box instead, and
looking down upon the four grays, felt as if he
were another gray himself, or, at all events, a part
of the turn-out ; and was quite confused by the
novelty and splendour of his situation.

And really it might have confused a less
modest man than Tom to find himself sitting
next that coachman ; for of all the swells that
ever flourished a whip, professionally, he might
have been elected Emperor. He didn't handle
his gloves like another man, but put them on —
even when he was standing on the pavement,
quite detached from the coach — as if the four
grays were, somehow or other, at the ends
of the fingers. It was the same with his
hat. He did things with his hat, which nothing
but an unlimited knowledge of horses and the
wildest freedom of the road could ever have made
him perfect in. Valuable little parcels were
brought to him with particular instructions, and
he pitched them into this hat, and stuck it on
again ; as if the laws of gravity did not admit of



such an event as its being knocked off or blown
off. and nothing like an accident could befall it.
The guard, too ! Seventy breezy miles a-day
were written in his very whiskers. His manners
were a canter; his conversation a round trot.
lie was a fast coach upon a down-hill turnpike
road ; he was all pace. A waggon couldn't have
moved slowly, with that guard and his key-bugle
on the top of it.

These were all foreshadowings of London, Tom
thought, as he sat upon the box, and looked
about him. Such a coachman, and such a guard,
never could have existed between Salisbury and
any other place. The coach was none of your
steady-going, yokel coaches, but a swaggering,
rakish, dissipated London coach; up all night,
and lying by all day, and leading a devil of a life.
It cared no more for Salisbury than if it had been
a hamlet. It rattled noisily through the best
streets, defied the Cathedral, took the worst
corners sharpest, went cutting in everywhere,
making everything get out of its way ; and spun
along the open country-road, blowing a lively
defiance out of its key-bugle, as its last glad
parting legacy.

It was a charming evening. . Mild and bright.
And even with the weight upon his mind which
arose out of the immensity and uncertainty of
London, Tom could not resist the captivating
sense of rapid motion through the pleasant air.
The four grays skimmed along, as if they liked
it quite as well as Tom did ; the bugle was in as
high spirits as the grays ; the coachman chimed
in sometimes with his voice ; the wheels hummed
cheerfully in unison ;" the brass work on the
harness was an orchestra of little bells ; and thus,
as they went clinking, jingling, rattling smoothly
on, the whole concern, from the buckles of the
leaders' coupling-reins to the handle of the hind
boot, was one great instrument of music. .

Yoho, past hedges, gates, and trees ; past cot-
tages and barns, and people going home from
work. Yoho, past donkey-chaises, drawn aside
into the ditch, and empty carts with rampant
horses, whipped up at a bound upon the little
watercourse, and held by struggling carters close
to the five-barred gate, until the coach had passed
the narrow turning in the road. Yoho, by
churches dropped down by themselves in quiet
nooks, with rustic burial-grounds about them,
where the graves are green and daisies sleep —
for it is evening — on the bosoms of the dead.
Yoho, past streams, in which the cattle cool their
feet, and where the rushes grow ; past paddock-
fences, farms, and rick-yards ; past last year's
stacks, cut, slice by slice, away, and showing, in
the waning light, like ruined gables, old and



284



MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT.



brown. Yoho, down the pebbly dip, and through
the merry water-splash, and up at a canter to
the level road again. Yoho ! Yoho !

Was the box there, when they came up to the
old finger-post ? The box ! Was Mrs. Lupin
herself? Had she turned out magnificently as a
hostess should, in her own chaise-cart, and was
she sitting in a mahogany chair, driving her own
horse Dragon (who ought to have been called
Dumpling), and looking lovely? Did the stage-
coach pull up beside her, shaving her very wheel,
and even while the guard helped her man up
with the trunk, did he send the glad echoes of
his bugle careering down the chimneys of the
distant Pecksniff, as if the coach expressed its
exultation in the rescue of Tom Pinch?

" This is kind indeed ! " said Tom, bending
down to shake hands with her. " 1 didn't mean
to give you this trouble."

" Trouble, Mr. Pinch ! " cried the hostess of
the Dragon.

'• Well ! It's a pleasure to you, I know," said
Tom, squeezing her hand heartily. " Is there
any news?"

The hostess shook her head.

" Say you saw me," said Tom, " and that I
was very bold and cheerful, and not a bit
down-hearted ; and that I entreated her to be
the same, for all is certain to come right at last.
Good bye ! "

" You'll write when you get settled, Mr.
Pinch?" said Mrs. Lupin.

" When I get settled ! " cried Tom, with an
involuntary opening of his eyes. " Oh, yes, I'll
write when I get settled. Perhaps I had better
write before, because I may find that it takes a
little time to settle myself; not having too much
money, and having only one friend. I shall give
your love to the friend, by the way. You were
always great with Mr. Westlock, you know. Good
bye ! "

" Good bye ! " said Mrs. Lupin, hastily pro-
ducing a basket with a long bottle sticking out
of it. " Take this. Good bye ! "

" Do you want me to carry it to London for
you?" cried Tom. She was already turning the
chaise-cart round.

" No, no," said Mrs. Lupin. " It's only a little
something for refreshment on the road. Sit
fast, Jack. Drive on, sir. All right ! Good
bye ! "

She was a quarter of a mile off, before Tom
collected himself ; and then he was waving his
hand lustily ; and so was she.

"And that's the last of the old finger-post,"
thought Tom, straining his eyes, "where I have
so often stood, to see this very coach go by, and



where I have parted with so many companions !
I used to compare this coach to some great
monster that appeared at certain times to bear
my friends away into the world. And now it's
bearing me away, to seek my fortune, Heaven
knows where and how ! "

It made Tom melancholy to picture himself
walking up the lane and back to Pecksniffs as
of old ; and being melancholy, he looked down-
wards at the basket on his knee, which he had
for the moment forgotten.

" She is the kindest and most considerate
creature in the world," thought Tom. " Now 1
know that she particularly told that man of hers
not to look at me, on purpose to prevent my
throwing him a shilling ! I had it ready for
him all the time, and he never once looked
towards me ; whereas that man naturally (for
I know him very well) would have done nothing
but grin and stare. Upon my word, the kind-
ness of people perfectly melts me."

Here he caught the coachman's eye. The
coachman winked. " Remarkable fine woman
for her time of life," said the coachman.

" I quite agree with you," returned Tom.
" So she is."

" Finer than many a young 'un, I mean to
say," observed the coachman. " Eh ? "

" Than many a young one," Tom assented.

" I don't care for 'em myself when they're too
young," remarked the coachman.

This was a matter of taste, which Tom did not
feel himself called upon to discuss.

" You'll seldom find 'em possessing correct
opinions about refreshment, for instance, when
they're too young, you know," said the coach-
man : "a woman must have arrived at maturity,
before her mind's equal to coming provided with
a basket like that."

" Perhaps you would like to know what it
contains ? " said Tom, smiling.

As the coachman only laughed, and as Tom
was curious himself, he unpacked it, and put the
articles, one by one, upon the footboard. A
cold roast fowl, a packet of ham in slices, a
crusty loaf, a piece of cheese, a paper of biscuits,
half a dozen apples, a knife, some butter, a
screw of salt, and a bottle of old sherry. There
was a letter besides, which Tom put in his
pocket.

The coachman was so earnest in his approval
of Mrs. Lupin's provident habits, and congratu-
lated Tom so warmly on his good fortune, that
Tom felt it necessary, for the lady's sake, to
explain that the basket was a strictly Platonic
basket, and had merely been presented to him
in the way of friendship. When he had made



THE LANDLADY'S BASKET.



2c 5



the statement with perfect gravity ; for he felt it
incumbent on him to disabuse the mind of this
lax rover of any incorrect impressions on the
subject ; he signified that he would be happy to
hue the gifts with him, and proposed that they
should attack the basket in a spirit of good
fellowship at any time in the course of the night
which the coachman's experience and knowledge
of the road might suggest, as being best adapted
to the purpose. From this time they chatted so
pleasantly together, that although Tom knew
infinitely more of unicorns than horses, the
coachman informed his friend the guard, at
the end of the next stage, " that rum as the
box-seat looked, he was as good a one to go,
in pint of conversation, as ever he'd wish to
sit by.''

Yoho, among the gathering shades ; making
of no account the deep reflections of the trees,
but scampering on through light and darkness,
all the same, as if the light of London fifty miles
away, were quite enough to travel by, and some
to spare. Yoho, beside the village-green, where
cricket-players linger yet, and every little in-
dentation made in the fresh grass by bat or
wicket, ball or player's foot, sheds out its per-
fume on the night. Away with four fresh horses
from the Bald-faced Stag, where topers congre-
gate about the door admiring; and the last
team with traces hanging loose, go roaming off
towards the pond, until observed and shouted
after by a dozen throats, while volunteering boys
pursue them. Now, with a clattering of hoofs
and striking out of fiery sparks, across the old
stone bridge, and down again into the shadowy
road, and through the open gate, and far away,
away, into the wold. Yoho !

Yoho, behind there, stop that bugle for a
moment ! Come creeping over to the front,
along the coach-roof, guard, and make one at
this basket ! Not that we slacken in our pace
the while, not we : we rather put the bits of
blood upon their mettle, for the greater glory of
the snack. Ah ! It is long since this bottle of
old wine was brought into contact with the
mellow breath of night, you may depend, and
rare good stuff it is to wet a bugler's whistle
with. Only try it. Don't be afraid of turning
up your finger, Bill, another pull ! Now, take
your breath, and try the bugle, Bill. There's
music ! There's a tone ! " Over the hills and
far away," indeed. Yoho ! The skittish mare
is all alive to-night. Yoho ! Yoho !

See the bright moon ! High up before we
know it : making the earth reflect the objects
on its breast like water. Hedges, trees, low
cottages, church steeples, blighted stumps, and



flourishing young slips, have all grown vain
upon the sudden, and mean to contemplate
their own fair images till morning. The poplars
yonder rustle, that their quivering leaves may
see themselves upon the ground. Not so the
oak; trembling does not become him; and he
watches himself in his stout old burly steadfast-
ness, without the motion of a twig. The moss-
grown gate, ill-poised upon its creaking hinges,
crippled and decayed, swings to and fro before
its glass, like some fantastic dowager; while
our own ghostly likeness travels on, Yoho !
Yoho ! through ditch and brake, upon the
ploughed land and the smooth, along the steep
hill-side and steeper wall, as if it were a phantom-
Hunter.

Clouds too ! And a mist upon the hollow !
Not a dull fog that hides it, but a light airy
gauze-like mist, which in our eyes of modest
admiration gives a new charm to the beauties it
is spread before : as real gauze has done ere
now, and would again, so please you, though
we were the Pope. Yoho ! Why now we travel
like the Moon herself. Hiding this minute in a
grove of trees ; next minute in a patch of
vapour; emerging now upon our broad clear
course ; withdrawing now, but always dashing
on, our journey is a counterpart of hers. Yoho !
A match against the Moon !

The beauty of the night is hardly felt, when
Day comes leaping up. Yoho ! Two stages,
and the country roads are almost changed to a
continuous street. Yoho, past market-gardens,
rows of houses, villas, crescents, terraces, and
squares ; past waggons, coaches, carts ; past
early workmen, late stragglers, drunken men,
and sober carriers of loads ; past brick and
mortar in its every shape ; and in among the
rattling pavements, where a jaunty-seat upon a
coach is not so easy to preserve ! Yoho, down
countless turnings, and through countless mazy
ways, until an old Inn-yard is gained, and Tom
Pinch, getting down, quite stunned and giddy,
is in London !

"Five minutes before the time, too!'' said
the driver, as he received his fee of Tom.

" Upon my word," said Tom, " I should not
have minded very much, if we had been five
hours after it ; for at this early hour 1 don't
know where to go, or what to do with myself.''

" Don't they expect you then? " inquired the
driver.

" Who ? " said Tom.

" Why, them," returned the driver.

His mind was so clearly running on the
assumption of Tom's having come to town to
see an extensive circle of anxious relations and



2 86



JfAR TIN CHUZZLE II YT.



friends, that it would have been pretty hard
work to undeceive him. Tom did not try. He
cheerfully evaded the subject, and going into
the Inn fell fast asleep before a fire in one of
the public rooms opening from the yard. When
he awoke, the people in the house were all astir,
so he washed and dressed himself; to his
refreshment after the journey; and, it being by