 obscurity, was of very mean and low descent. How stands
the proof? When the son of that individual, to whom the secret of his father's
birth was supposed to have been communicated by his father in his lifetime, lay
upon his deathbed, this question was put to him in a distinct, solemn, and
formal way: »Toby Chuzzlewit, who was your grandfather?« To which he, with his
last breath, no less distinctly, solemnly, and formally replied: and his words
were taken down at the time, and signed by six witnesses, each with his name and
address in full: The Lord No Zoo. It may be said - it has been said, for human
wickedness has no limits - that there is no Lord of that name, and that among
the titles which have become extinct, none at all resembling this, in sound
even, is to be discovered. But what is the irresistible inference? - Rejecting a
theory broached by some well-meaning but mistaken persons, that this Mr. Toby
Chuzzlewit's grandfather, to judge from his name, must surely have been a
Mandarin (which is wholly insupportable, for there is no pretence of his
grandmother ever having been out of this country, or of any Mandarin having been
in it within some years of his father's birth; except those in the tea-shops,
which cannot for a moment be regarded as having any bearing on the question, one
way or other), rejecting this hypothesis, is it not manifest that Mr. Toby
Chuzzlewit had either received the name imperfectly from his father, or that he
had forgotten it, or that he had mispronounced it? and that even at the recent
period in question, the Chuzzlewits were connected by a bend sinister, or kind
of heraldic over-the-left, with some unknown noble and illustrious House?
    From documentary evidence, yet preserved in the family, the fact is clearly
established that in the comparatively modern days of the Diggory Chuzzlewit
before mentioned, one of its members had attained to very great wealth and
influence. Throughout such fragments of his correspondence as have escaped the
ravages of the moths (who, in right of their extensive absorption of the
contents of deeds and papers, may be called the general registers of the Insect
World), we find him making constant reference to an uncle, in respect of whom he
would seem to have entertained great expectations, as he was in the habit of
seeking to propitiate his favour by presents of plate, jewels, books, watches,
and other valuable articles. Thus, he
