while these things were occurring, much had[pg 314] happened to martin and mark tapley far away in america.
the sailing vessel on which they crossed was crowded and dirty, and in order to save their money they had taken passage in the steerage. for a long time martin was very seasick, and even when he grew better he was so ashamed at having to travel in the worst and cheapest part of the vessel that he would not go on deck.
but tapley had none of this false pride. he made friends with all, helped every one he could and soon became such a general favorite that (as he thought sadly) he was having much too good a time for him to be jolly with any credit.
the long voyage of so many weeks came to an end at last, and they reached new york. they found it a strange place indeed, and met many strange characters in it. only one they met pleased them: a gentleman named bevan, and from him they got much information and advice. there seemed, however, to be little opening for an architect in new york, and martin at length decided to go west and settle in some newer region.
in the western town where they left the train they found a land agent who was selling lots in a new settlement, on the mississippi river, called eden. to buy their railway tickets martin had already sold the ring mary graham had given him, and he had just enough to purchase a tract of land in eden and to pay their fare there.[pg 315]
martin looked at the agent's splendid plans of the new town, showing wharves, churches and public buildings, and thought it a capital place for a young architect; so they closed the bargain without more ado and took the next steamer down the desolate mississippi.
a terrible disappointment awaited them when they found what eden really was—a handful of rotting log cabins set in a swamp. the wharves and public buildings existed only on the agent's map with which he had so cruelly cheated them. there were only a few wan men alive there—the rest had succumbed to the sickly hot vapor that rose from the swamp and hung in the air. at the sight of what they had come to, martin lay down and wept in very despair. but for his comrade's cheerfulness he would have wholly given up hope.
next morning martin found himself in the grip of the deadly fever with which the place reeked, and for many days thereafter he lay helpless and burning, nursed like a child by the faithful mark tapley. when he had begun to recover it came the other's turn to fall ill and martin took his place at nursing.
through all tapley never complained. at last he found himself in circumstances where to be jolly was really a credit to anybody. he always insisted that he was in great spirits, and when he was weakest and could not speak he wrote "jolly" on a slate for martin to see.[pg 316]
watching beside his friend day by day, martin came to know himself truly and to see his own selfishness. as he nursed tapley to health again he determined to root it out of his nature and to return to england a nobler man. he began to think not of what he had sacrificed for mary, but of what she would have sacrificed for him, and to wish with all his heart that he had not parted from his grandfather in anger. and even before tapley was able to sit up martin had determined to return as soon as possible to england.
he laid aside his pride and wrote to bevan, who had befriended them in new york, to borrow money enough to bring them both to that city. once there, tapley found a position as cook in the same ship that had brought them from england and his wages proved sufficient to pay for martin's passage.
so martin started back to the home he had parted from a year before, poorer than he had left it, but at heart a better and a sounder man. his false pride was gone now. he mingled with others and helped them, and by the time they landed he was as popular a passenger as mark tapley was a cook.
almost the first man they saw on landing, curiously enough, was the oily pecksniff. they saw him escorted along the street, pointed out by the crowds as "the great architect." on that day the corner stone of a splendid public building was[pg 317] to be laid, and pecksniff's design for this structure had taken the prize. the two comrades went with the crowd to hear pecksniff's speech, and looking over a gentleman's shoulder at a picture of the building as it was to look, martin saw that it was the very grammar school he himself had designed when he had first come to pecksniff's. the old rascal had stolen the plans!
martin was angry, of course, but there was no help for it, and besides he had other things to think of. mary graham, to be sure, was his first thought, and he and tapley set out at once for the blue dragon to learn the latest news.
the rosy landlady laughed and cried together to see them and mark tapley kissed her so many times that she was quite out of breath. she cooked the finest dinner in the world for them and told them all she knew about their friends: how tom pinch had been sent away, and how every one said that pecksniff intended to marry mary. this news made martin grind his teeth, and it would have been unlucky for the architect if he had been near at that moment.
martin first sent tapley with a note addressed to his grandfather, but pecksniff, who came to the door, tore up the letter before the bearer's face. mark told martin of this, and together they forced themselves into the house, and into the room where old chuzzlewit sat, with pecksniff beside him, and mary standing behind his chair.[pg 318]
martin's grandfather hardly looked at him, keeping his eyes on pecksniff's face, as though he depended on him even for his thoughts. martin, seeing this, was almost hopeless, but he did as he had determined, and in a few manly words begged old chuzzlewit's pardon for his own haste and temper, and asked him to take him back to his favor. while he talked, mary had hidden her face in her hands and was weeping, for she believed his grandfather so wholly in pecksniff's power that she had no hope for martin.
pecksniff was in rare good humor, for it was this very day that he had turned his money over to tigg to make a fortune for him in the great anglo-bengalee company. now, rejoicing in his opportunity, he took it upon himself to answer. he called martin a shameless, cowardly vagabond and ordered him from the door. then he gave his arm to the old man and led him out of the room.
martin clasped mary for a moment in his arms as he kissed her and told her to keep up heart. then he left the house and set out with mark tapley for london.
