Chapters 24-26 Summary
The elder Martin Chuzzlewit and Mary Graham arrive at the Pecksniff house. Pecksniff, confused and frustrated, hides Jonas in one room, puts on his gardening gear, and opens the door, apologizing to Mr. Chuzzlewit for the delay. He tells Mr. Chuzzlewit that his nephew Jonas is in the house. After bidding Tom Pinch to fetch Mercy and Charity, Pecksniff retrieves Jonas. The nephew and uncle coldly shake hands. Pecksniff assures Mr. Chuzzlewit that Jonas has been a model son in the manner of his grief over his father’s death. Mr. Chuzzlewit has Tom escort him and Mary back to the Blue Dragon Inn. He ascertains that as much as he had been favorably impressed by Tom, he is in fact too subservient to Pecksniff after all. On the way back, Tom encounters Jonas blocking his way. Jonas is insulting, and Tom knocks him down, cutting his temple. He escorts Jonas back to the house, where Jonas explains that he walked into a tree. Charity confronts Tom, asking him if he had hit Jonas. When Tom reluctantly admits this, Charity swears that she is Tom’s friend for life.
Mr. Chuzzlewit asks Mercy whether she loves Jonas. Mercy, sensing that the old man does not like his nephew, says that she hates him and plans to marry him simply to make his life miserable. Mr. Chuzzlewit warns her that she will have to spend the rest of her life with a man she despises. When Jonas presses her for a date for the wedding, preferably the next week, Mercy puts him off. As Mercy walks off, Jonas swears to himself that he will make her pay after they are married.
While Jonas is gone, Mrs. Gamp watches over Chuffey. She has also been hired as the night nurse for a friend of John Westlock who has been subdued by a fever, requiring constant attention. John explains to Mr. Mould and Mrs. Gamp that he had received a letter from the man, who is his old school friend, but did not know for what purpose. Mrs. Gamp sits up with Chuffey, listening to him mutter in his delirium. He cries out, “Chuzzlewit! Jonas! No!” This name she recognizes, but does not mention it to the doctor the next day.
Poll Sweedlepipe, Mrs. Gamp’s landlord, runs into Bailey, who has long left Todgers’ boarding house and is now dressed in livery. Poll tells Bailey that he is fetching Mrs. Gamp home, having come to the end of her service with Mr. Chuffey now that Jonas is married. Bailey assumes that Jonas has married Charity and so is surprised to find that it is Mercy. When the new Mrs. Chuzzlewit arrives at her new home, she is struck by how dull the house is. Jonas warns her that it will be even duller if she does not stop talking that way. Chuffey asks her if she is married to Jonas. When she replies that she is, Chuffey says, “Oh! Woe, woe, woe, upon this wicked house!”
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