ust employer a lecture that left
him much astonished, and then, drawing Ruth's arm through his, he led
her from the house for ever.

It was not long before each had told the other all that had happened.
Tom decided that they should part no more, and they set out together to
find a lodging. They took some rooms in a quiet neighborhood and settled
down together till Tom could find something to do.

Ruth was a neat housekeeper, but she had to learn to cook, and they had
great fun over their first meal. While she was making her first
beefsteak pudding Westlock called with a great piece of news. An agent
had come to him asking him to offer to his friend Tom Pinch a position
as a librarian at a good salary. Who the employer was Tom was not to
know. Here was a rare mystery, and Ruth in her mingled excitement and
pie-making looked so sweet and charming that then and there Westlock
fell in love with her.

Tom and he went at once to the agent who had made this extraordinary
offer, and he took them to an unoccupied house, to a dusty room whose
floor was covered all over with books. Tom, he said, was to arrange and
make a list of these. Then he gave him the key, told him to come to him
each week for his salary, and disappeared.

Still wondering, the two friends went back together, for of course
Westlock had to taste the beefsteak pudding. Ruth had supper waiting for
them. Every minute Westlock thought she grew more lovely, and as he
walked home he knew he was in love at last.

Now, the mystery of Tom's library, and of the bank-note that Martin had
received when his money was all gone, would have been a very joyful one
to them both if they could have guessed it. Old Chuzzlewit, whom they
believed so harsh, and whom the wily Pecksniff thought he had got under
his thumb, was a very deep and knowing old man indeed. He had never
ceased to love Martin, his grandson, though he had misunderstood him at
first, but he had seen very plainly that the lad was growing selfish and
he wished to save him from this. He had longed for nothing more than
that Martin and Mary should marry, but he wished to try their love for
each other as well as Martin's affection for him. It was to test
Pecksniff that old Chuzzlewit had asked the architect to send Martin
from his house, and when he saw that Pecksniff was fawning hound enough
to do it, he determined to punish him in the end. It was old Chuzzlewit
who had found where Martin lodged in London, and ha