Martin Chuzzlewit Chapter 10

In which the respectable Mr Pecksniff engages in prudent correspondence and welcomes an unexpected but earnest visitor, who seeks to reconcile past misunderstandings and establish new bonds of alliance and affection amidst cautious hope. Meanwhile, the daily humours and petty disputes of a modest lodging-house unfold, revealing the quaint trials and foibles of its inhabitants, as Mr Pecksniff contemplates the humiliating cost of genteel dissimulation.