XI + 

Lower and Lower + 

The figure descended the great stairs, steadily, steadily; always verging, like a weight in deep water, to the black gulf at the bottom. + 

Mr.┬аGradgrind, apprised of his wifeтАЩs decease, made an expedition from London, and buried her in a businesslike manner. He then returned with promptitude to the national cinder-heap, and resumed his sifting for the odds and ends he wanted, and his throwing of the dust about into the eyes of other people who wanted other odds and endsтБатАФin fact resumed his parliamentary duties. + 

In the meantime, Mrs.┬аSparsit kept unwinking watch and ward. Separated from her staircase, all the week, by the length of iron road dividing Coketown from the country house, she yet maintained her catlike observation of Louisa, through her husband, through her brother, through James Harthouse, through the outsides of letters and packets, through everything animate and inanimate that at any time went near the stairs. тАЬYour foot on the last step, my lady,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, apostrophizing the descending figure, with the aid of her threatening mitten, тАЬand all your art shall never blind me.тАЭ + 

Art or nature though, the original stock of LouisaтАЩs character or the graft of circumstances upon itтБатАФher curious reserve did baffle, while it stimulated, one as sagacious as Mrs.┬аSparsit. There were times when Mr.┬аJames Harthouse was not sure of her. There were times when he could not read the face he had studied so long; and when this lonely girl was a greater mystery to him, than any woman of the world with a ring of satellites to help her. + 

So the time went on; until it happened that Mr.┬аBounderby was called away from home by business which required his presence elsewhere, for three or four days. It was on a Friday that he intimated this to Mrs.┬аSparsit at the Bank, adding: тАЬBut youтАЩll go down tomorrow, maтАЩam, all the same. YouтАЩll go down just as if I was there. It will make no difference to you.тАЭ + 

тАЬPray, sir,тАЭ returned Mrs.┬аSparsit, reproachfully, тАЬlet me beg you not to say that. Your absence will make a vast difference to me, sir, as I think you very well know.тАЭ + 

тАЬWell, maтАЩam, then you must get on in my absence as well as you can,тАЭ said Mr.┬аBounderby, not displeased. + 

тАЬMr.┬аBounderby,тАЭ retorted Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬyour will is to me a law, sir; otherwise, it might be my inclination to dispute your kind commands, not feeling sure that it will be quite so agreeable to Miss Gradgrind to receive me, as it ever is to your own munificent hospitality. But you shall say no more, sir. I will go, upon your invitation.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhy, when I invite you to my house, maтАЩam,тАЭ said Bounderby, opening his eyes, тАЬI should hope you want no other invitation.тАЭ + 

тАЬNo, indeed, sir,тАЭ returned Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬI should hope not. Say no more, sir. I would, sir, I could see you gay again.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhat do you mean, maтАЩam?тАЭ blustered Bounderby. + 

тАЬSir,тАЭ rejoined Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬthere was wont to be an elasticity in you which I sadly miss. Be buoyant, sir!тАЭ + 

Mr.┬аBounderby, under the influence of this difficult adjuration, backed up by her compassionate eye, could only scratch his head in a feeble and ridiculous manner, and afterwards assert himself at a distance, by being heard to bully the small fry of business all the morning. + 

тАЬBitzer,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit that afternoon, when her patron was gone on his journey, and the Bank was closing, тАЬpresent my compliments to young Mr.┬аThomas, and ask him if he would step up and partake of a lamb chop and walnut ketchup, with a glass of India ale?тАЭ Young Mr.┬аThomas being usually ready for anything in that way, returned a gracious answer, and followed on its heels. тАЬMr.┬аThomas,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬthese plain viands being on table, I thought you might be tempted.тАЭ + 

тАЬThankтАЩee, Mrs.┬аSparsit,тАЭ said the whelp. And gloomily fell to. + 

тАЬHow is Mr.┬аHarthouse, Mr.┬аTom?тАЭ asked Mrs.┬аSparsit. + 

тАЬOh, heтАЩs all right,тАЭ said Tom. + 

тАЬWhere may he be at present?тАЭ Mrs.┬аSparsit asked in a light conversational manner, after mentally devoting the whelp to the Furies for being so uncommunicative. + 

тАЬHe is shooting in Yorkshire,тАЭ said Tom. тАЬSent Loo a basket half as big as a church, yesterday.тАЭ + 

тАЬThe kind of gentleman, now,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, sweetly, тАЬwhom one might wager to be a good shot!тАЭ + 

тАЬCrack,тАЭ said Tom. + 

He had long been a down-looking young fellow, but this characteristic had so increased of late, that he never raised his eyes to any face for three seconds together. Mrs.┬аSparsit consequently had ample means of watching his looks, if she were so inclined. + 

тАЬMr.┬аHarthouse is a great favourite of mine,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬas indeed he is of most people. May we expect to see him again shortly, Mr.┬аTom?тАЭ + 

тАЬWhy, I expect to see him tomorrow,тАЭ returned the whelp. + 

тАЬGood news!тАЭ cried Mrs.┬аSparsit, blandly. + 

тАЬI have got an appointment with him to meet him in the evening at the station here,тАЭ said Tom, тАЬand I am going to dine with him afterwards, I believe. He is not coming down to the country house for a week or so, being due somewhere else. At least, he says so; but I shouldnтАЩt wonder if he was to stop here over Sunday, and stray that way.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhich reminds me!тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit. тАЬWould you remember a message to your sister, Mr.┬аTom, if I was to charge you with one?тАЭ + 

тАЬWell? IтАЩll try,тАЭ returned the reluctant whelp, тАЬif it isnтАЩt a long un.тАЭ + 

тАЬIt is merely my respectful compliments,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬand I fear I may not trouble her with my society this week; being still a little nervous, and better perhaps by my poor self.тАЭ + 

тАЬOh! If thatтАЩs all,тАЭ observed Tom, тАЬit wouldnтАЩt much matter, even if I was to forget it, for LooтАЩs not likely to think of you unless she sees you.тАЭ + 

Having paid for his entertainment with this agreeable compliment, he relapsed into a hangdog silence until there was no more India ale left, when he said, тАЬWell, Mrs.┬аSparsit, I must be off!тАЭ and went off. + 

Next day, Saturday, Mrs.┬аSparsit sat at her window all day long looking at the customers coming in and out, watching the postmen, keeping an eye on the general traffic of the street, revolving many things in her mind, but, above all, keeping her attention on her staircase. The evening come, she put on her bonnet and shawl, and went quietly out: having her reasons for hovering in a furtive way about the station by which a passenger would arrive from Yorkshire, and for preferring to peep into it round pillars and corners, and out of ladiesтАЩ waiting-room windows, to appearing in its precincts openly. + 

Tom was in attendance, and loitered about until the expected train came in. It brought no Mr.┬аHarthouse. Tom waited until the crowd had dispersed, and the bustle was over; and then referred to a posted list of trains, and took counsel with porters. That done, he strolled away idly, stopping in the street and looking up it and down it, and lifting his hat off and putting it on again, and yawning and stretching himself, and exhibiting all the symptoms of mortal weariness to be expected in one who had still to wait until the next train should come in, an hour and forty minutes hence. + 

тАЬThis is a device to keep him out of the way,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, starting from the dull office window whence she had watched him last. тАЬHarthouse is with his sister now!тАЭ + 

It was the conception of an inspired moment, and she shot off with her utmost swiftness to work it out. The station for the country house was at the opposite end of the town, the time was short, the road not easy; but she was so quick in pouncing on a disengaged coach, so quick in darting out of it, producing her money, seizing her ticket, and diving into the train, that she was borne along the arches spanning the land of coal-pits past and present, as if she had been caught up in a cloud and whirled away. + 

All the journey, immovable in the air though never left behind; plain to the dark eyes of her mind, as the electric wires which ruled a colossal strip of music-paper out of the evening sky, were plain to the dark eyes of her body; Mrs.┬аSparsit saw her staircase, with the figure coming down. Very near the bottom now. Upon the brink of the abyss. + 

An overcast September evening, just at nightfall, saw beneath its drooping eyelids Mrs.┬аSparsit glide out of her carriage, pass down the wooden steps of the little station into a stony road, cross it into a green lane, and become hidden in a summer-growth of leaves and branches. One or two late birds sleepily chirping in their nests, and a bat heavily crossing and recrossing her, and the reek of her own tread in the thick dust that felt like velvet, were all Mrs.┬аSparsit heard or saw until she very softly closed a gate. + 

She went up to the house, keeping within the shrubbery, and went round it, peeping between the leaves at the lower windows. Most of them were open, as they usually were in such warm weather, but there were no lights yet, and all was silent. She tried the garden with no better effect. She thought of the wood, and stole towards it, heedless of long grass and briers: of worms, snails, and slugs, and all the creeping things that be. With her dark eyes and her hook nose warily in advance of her, Mrs.┬аSparsit softly crushed her way through the thick undergrowth, so intent upon her object that she probably would have done no less, if the wood had been a wood of adders. + 

Hark! + 

The smaller birds might have tumbled out of their nests, fascinated by the glittering of Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs eyes in the gloom, as she stopped and listened. + 

Low voices close at hand. His voice and hers. The appointment was a device to keep the brother away! There they were yonder, by the felled tree. + 

Bending low among the dewy grass, Mrs.┬аSparsit advanced closer to them. She drew herself up, and stood behind a tree, like Robinson Crusoe in his ambuscade against the savages; so near to them that at a spring, and that no great one, she could have touched them both. He was there secretly, and had not shown himself at the house. He had come on horseback, and must have passed through the neighbouring fields; for his horse was tied to the meadow side of the fence, within a few paces. + 

тАЬMy dearest love,тАЭ said he, тАЬwhat could I do? Knowing you were alone, was it possible that I could stay away?тАЭ + 

тАЬYou may hang your head, to make yourself the more attractive; I donтАЩt know what they see in you when you hold it up,тАЭ thought Mrs.┬аSparsit; тАЬbut you little think, my dearest love, whose eyes are on you!тАЭ + 

That she hung her head, was certain. She urged him to go away, she commanded him to go away; but she neither turned her face to him, nor raised it. Yet it was remarkable that she sat as still as ever the amiable woman in ambuscade had seen her sit, at any period in her life. Her hands rested in one another, like the hands of a statue; and even her manner of speaking was not hurried. + 

тАЬMy dear child,тАЭ said Harthouse; Mrs.┬аSparsit saw with delight that his arm embraced her; тАЬwill you not bear with my society for a little while?тАЭ + 

тАЬNot here.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhere, Louisa?тАЭ + 

тАЬNot here.тАЭ + 

тАЬBut we have so little time to make so much of, and I have come so far, and am altogether so devoted, and distracted. There never was a slave at once so devoted and ill-used by his mistress. To look for your sunny welcome that has warmed me into life, and to be received in your frozen manner, is heartrending.тАЭ + 

тАЬAm I to say again, that I must be left to myself here?тАЭ + 

тАЬBut we must meet, my dear Louisa. Where shall we meet?тАЭ + 

They both started. The listener started, guiltily, too; for she thought there was another listener among the trees. It was only rain, beginning to fall fast, in heavy drops. + 

тАЬShall I ride up to the house a few minutes hence, innocently supposing that its master is at home and will be charmed to receive me?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo!тАЭ + 

тАЬYour cruel commands are implicitly to be obeyed; though I am the most unfortunate fellow in the world, I believe, to have been insensible to all other women, and to have fallen prostrate at last under the foot of the most beautiful, and the most engaging, and the most imperious. My dearest Louisa, I cannot go myself, or let you go, in this hard abuse of your power.тАЭ + 

Mrs.┬аSparsit saw him detain her with his encircling arm, and heard him then and there, within her (Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs) greedy hearing, tell her how he loved her, and how she was the stake for which he ardently desired to play away all that he had in life. The objects he had lately pursued, turned worthless beside her; such success as was almost in his grasp, he flung away from him like the dirt it was, compared with her. Its pursuit, nevertheless, if it kept him near her, or its renunciation if it took him from her, or flight if she shared it, or secrecy if she commanded it, or any fate, or every fate, all was alike to him, so that she was true to himтБатАФthe man who had seen how cast away she was, whom she had inspired at their first meeting with an admiration, an interest, of which he had thought himself incapable, whom she had received into her confidence, who was devoted to her and adored her. All this, and more, in his hurry, and in hers, in the whirl of her own gratified malice, in the dread of being discovered, in the rapidly increasing noise of heavy rain among the leaves, and a thunderstorm rolling upтБатАФMrs.┬аSparsit received into her mind, set off with such an unavoidable halo of confusion and indistinctness, that when at length he climbed the fence and led his horse away, she was not sure where they were to meet, or when, except that they had said it was to be that night. + 

But one of them yet remained in the darkness before her; and while she tracked that one she must be right. тАЬOh, my dearest love,тАЭ thought Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬyou little think how well attended you are!тАЭ + 

Mrs.┬аSparsit saw her out of the wood, and saw her enter the house. What to do next? It rained now, in a sheet of water. Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs white stockings were of many colours, green predominating; prickly things were in her shoes; caterpillars slung themselves, in hammocks of their own making, from various parts of her dress; rills ran from her bonnet, and her Roman nose. In such condition, Mrs.┬аSparsit stood hidden in the density of the shrubbery, considering what next? + 

Lo, Louisa coming out of the house! Hastily cloaked and muffled, and stealing away. She elopes! She falls from the lowermost stair, and is swallowed up in the gulf. + 

Indifferent to the rain, and moving with a quick determined step, she struck into a side-path parallel with the ride. Mrs.┬аSparsit followed in the shadow of the trees, at but a short distance; for it was not easy to keep a figure in view going quickly through the umbrageous darkness. + 

When she stopped to close the side-gate without noise, Mrs.┬аSparsit stopped. When she went on, Mrs.┬аSparsit went on. She went by the way Mrs.┬аSparsit had come, emerged from the green lane, crossed the stony road, and ascended the wooden steps to the railroad. A train for Coketown would come through presently, Mrs.┬аSparsit knew; so she understood Coketown to be her first place of destination. + 

In Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs limp and streaming state, no extensive precautions were necessary to change her usual appearance; but, she stopped under the lee of the station wall, tumbled her shawl into a new shape, and put it on over her bonnet. So disguised she had no fear of being recognized when she followed up the railroad steps, and paid her money in the small office. Louisa sat waiting in a corner. Mrs.┬аSparsit sat waiting in another corner. Both listened to the thunder, which was loud, and to the rain, as it washed off the roof, and pattered on the parapets of the arches. Two or three lamps were rained out and blown out; so, both saw the lightning to advantage as it quivered and zigzagged on the iron tracks. + 

The seizure of the station with a fit of trembling, gradually deepening to a complaint of the heart, announced the train. Fire and steam, and smoke, and red light; a hiss, a crash, a bell, and a shriek; Louisa put into one carriage, Mrs.┬аSparsit put into another: the little station a desert speck in the thunderstorm. + 

Though her teeth chattered in her head from wet and cold, Mrs.┬аSparsit exulted hugely. The figure had plunged down the precipice, and she felt herself, as it were, attending on the body. Could she, who had been so active in the getting up of the funeral triumph, do less than exult? тАЬShe will be at Coketown long before him,тАЭ thought Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬthough his horse is never so good. Where will she wait for him? And where will they go together? Patience. We shall see.тАЭ + 

The tremendous rain occasioned infinite confusion, when the train stopped at its destination. Gutters and pipes had burst, drains had overflowed, and streets were under water. In the first instant of alighting, Mrs.┬аSparsit turned her distracted eyes towards the waiting coaches, which were in great request. тАЬShe will get into one,тАЭ she considered, тАЬand will be away before I can follow in another. At all risks of being run over, I must see the number, and hear the order given to the coachman.тАЭ + 

But, Mrs.┬аSparsit was wrong in her calculation. Louisa got into no coach, and was already gone. The black eyes kept upon the railroad-carriage in which she had travelled, settled upon it a moment too late. The door not being opened after several minutes, Mrs.┬аSparsit passed it and repassed it, saw nothing, looked in, and found it empty. Wet through and through: with her feet squelching and squashing in her shoes whenever she moved; with a rash of rain upon her classical visage; with a bonnet like an overripe fig; with all her clothes spoiled; with damp impressions of every button, string, and hook-and-eye she wore, printed off upon her highly connected back; with a stagnant verdure on her general exterior, such as accumulates on an old park fence in a mouldy lane; Mrs.┬аSparsit had no resource but to burst into tears of bitterness and say, тАЬI have lost her!тАЭ + 