XIV
The Great Manufacturer
Time went on in Coketown like its own machinery: so much material wrought up, so much fuel consumed, so many powers worn out, so much money made. But, less inexorable than iron, steel, and brass, it brought its varying seasons even into that wilderness of smoke and brick, and made the only stand that ever was made in the place against its direful uniformity.
тАЬLouisa is becoming,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind, тАЬalmost a young woman.тАЭ
Time, with his innumerable horsepower, worked away, not minding what anybody said, and presently turned out young Thomas a foot taller than when his father had last taken particular notice of him.
тАЬThomas is becoming,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind, тАЬalmost a young man.тАЭ
Time passed Thomas on in the mill, while his father was thinking about it, and there he stood in a long-tailed coat and a stiff shirt-collar.
тАЬReally,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind, тАЬthe period has arrived when Thomas ought to go to Bounderby.тАЭ
Time, sticking to him, passed him on into BounderbyтАЩs Bank, made him an inmate of BounderbyтАЩs house, necessitated the purchase of his first razor, and exercised him diligently in his calculations relative to number one.
The same great manufacturer, always with an immense variety of work on hand, in every stage of development, passed Sissy onward in his mill, and worked her up into a very pretty article indeed.
тАЬI fear, Jupe,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind, тАЬthat your continuance at the school any longer would be useless.тАЭ
тАЬI am afraid it would, sir,тАЭ Sissy answered with a curtsey.
тАЬI cannot disguise from you, Jupe,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind, knitting his brow, тАЬthat the result of your probation there has disappointed me; has greatly disappointed me. You have not acquired, under Mr.┬аand Mrs.┬аMтАЩChoakumchild, anything like that amount of exact knowledge which I looked for. You are extremely deficient in your facts. Your acquaintance with figures is very limited. You are altogether backward, and below the mark.тАЭ
тАЬI am sorry, sir,тАЭ she returned; тАЬbut I know it is quite true. Yet I have tried hard, sir.тАЭ
тАЬYes,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind, тАЬyes, I believe you have tried hard; I have observed you, and I can find no fault in that respect.тАЭ
тАЬThank you, sir. I have thought sometimes;тАЭ Sissy very timid here; тАЬthat perhaps I tried to learn too much, and that if I had asked to be allowed to try a little less, I might haveтБатАФтАЭ
тАЬNo, Jupe, no,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind, shaking his head in his profoundest and most eminently practical way. тАЬNo. The course you pursued, you pursued according to the systemтБатАФthe systemтБатАФand there is no more to be said about it. I can only suppose that the circumstances of your early life were too unfavourable to the development of your reasoning powers, and that we began too late. Still, as I have said already, I am disappointed.тАЭ
тАЬI wish I could have made a better acknowledgment, sir, of your kindness to a poor forlorn girl who had no claim upon you, and of your protection of her.тАЭ
тАЬDonтАЩt shed tears,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind. тАЬDonтАЩt shed tears. I donтАЩt complain of you. You are an affectionate, earnest, good young womanтБатАФandтБатАФand we must make that do.тАЭ
тАЬThank you, sir, very much,тАЭ said Sissy, with a grateful curtsey.
тАЬYou are useful to Mrs.┬аGradgrind, and (in a generally pervading way) you are serviceable in the family also; so I understand from Miss Louisa, and, indeed, so I have observed myself. I therefore hope,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind, тАЬthat you can make yourself happy in those relations.тАЭ
тАЬI should have nothing to wish, sir, ifтБатАФтАЭ
тАЬI understand you,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind; тАЬyou still refer to your father. I have heard from Miss Louisa that you still preserve that bottle. Well! If your training in the science of arriving at exact results had been more successful, you would have been wiser on these points. I will say no more.тАЭ
He really liked Sissy too well to have a contempt for her; otherwise he held her calculating powers in such very slight estimation that he must have fallen upon that conclusion. Somehow or other, he had become possessed by an idea that there was something in this girl which could hardly be set forth in a tabular form. Her capacity of definition might be easily stated at a very low figure, her mathematical knowledge at nothing; yet he was not sure that if he had been required, for example, to tick her off into columns in a parliamentary return, he would have quite known how to divide her.
In some stages of his manufacture of the human fabric, the processes of Time are very rapid. Young Thomas and Sissy being both at such a stage of their working up, these changes were effected in a year or two; while Mr.┬аGradgrind himself seemed stationary in his course, and underwent no alteration.
Except one, which was apart from his necessary progress through the mill. Time hustled him into a little noisy and rather dirty machinery, in a by-comer, and made him Member of Parliament for Coketown: one of the respected members for ounce weights and measures, one of the representatives of the multiplication table, one of the deaf honourable gentlemen, dumb honourable gentlemen, blind honourable gentlemen, lame honourable gentlemen, dead honourable gentlemen, to every other consideration. Else wherefore live we in a Christian land, eighteen hundred and odd years after our Master?
All this while, Louisa had been passing on, so quiet and reserved, and so much given to watching the bright ashes at twilight as they fell into the grate, and became extinct, that from the period when her father had said she was almost a young womanтБатАФwhich seemed but yesterdayтБатАФshe had scarcely attracted his notice again, when he found her quite a young woman.
тАЬQuite a young woman,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind, musing. тАЬDear me!тАЭ
Soon after this discovery, he became more thoughtful than usual for several days, and seemed much engrossed by one subject. On a certain night, when he was going out, and Louisa came to bid him goodbye before his departureтБатАФas he was not to be home until late and she would not see him again until the morningтБатАФhe held her in his arms, looking at her in his kindest manner, and said:
тАЬMy dear Louisa, you are a woman!тАЭ
She answered with the old, quick, searching look of the night when she was found at the Circus; then cast down her eyes. тАЬYes, father.тАЭ
тАЬMy dear,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind, тАЬI must speak with you alone and seriously. Come to me in my room after breakfast tomorrow, will you?тАЭ
тАЬYes, father.тАЭ
тАЬYour hands are rather cold, Louisa. Are you not well?тАЭ
тАЬQuite well, father.тАЭ
тАЬAnd cheerful?тАЭ
She looked at him again, and smiled in her peculiar manner. тАЬI am as cheerful, father, as I usually am, or usually have been.тАЭ
тАЬThatтАЩs well,тАЭ said Mr.┬аGradgrind. So, he kissed her and went away; and Louisa returned to the serene apartment of the hair-cutting character, and leaning her elbow on her hand, looked again at the short-lived sparks that so soon subsided into ashes.
тАЬAre you there, Loo?тАЭ said her brother, looking in at the door. He was quite a young gentleman of pleasure now, and not quite a prepossessing one.
тАЬDear Tom,тАЭ she answered, rising and embracing him, тАЬhow long it is since you have been to see me!тАЭ
тАЬWhy, I have been otherwise engaged, Loo, in the evenings; and in the daytime old Bounderby has been keeping me at it rather. But I touch him up with you when he comes it too strong, and so we preserve an understanding. I say! Has father said anything particular to you today or yesterday, Loo?тАЭ
тАЬNo, Tom. But he told me tonight that he wished to do so in the morning.тАЭ
тАЬAh! ThatтАЩs what I mean,тАЭ said Tom. тАЬDo you know where he is tonight?тАЭтБатАФwith a very deep expression.
тАЬNo.тАЭ
тАЬThen IтАЩll tell you. HeтАЩs with old Bounderby. They are having a regular confab together up at the Bank. Why at the Bank, do you think? Well, IтАЩll tell you again. To keep Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs ears as far off as possible, I expect.тАЭ
With her hand upon her brotherтАЩs shoulder, Louisa still stood looking at the fire. Her brother glanced at her face with greater interest than usual, and, encircling her waist with his arm, drew her coaxingly to him.
тАЬYou are very fond of me, anтАЩt you, Loo?тАЭ
тАЬIndeed I am, Tom, though you do let such long intervals go by without coming to see me.тАЭ
тАЬWell, sister of mine,тАЭ said Tom, тАЬwhen you say that, you are near my thoughts. We might be so much oftener togetherтБатАФmightnтАЩt we? Always together, almostтБатАФmightnтАЩt we? It would do me a great deal of good if you were to make up your mind to I know what, Loo. It would be a splendid thing for me. It would be uncommonly jolly!тАЭ
Her thoughtfulness baffled his cunning scrutiny. He could make nothing of her face. He pressed her in his arm, and kissed her cheek. She returned the kiss, but still looked at the fire.
тАЬI say, Loo! I thought IтАЩd come, and just hint to you what was going on: though I supposed youтАЩd most likely guess, even if you didnтАЩt know. I canтАЩt stay, because IтАЩm engaged to some fellows tonight. You wonтАЩt forget how fond you are of me?тАЭ
тАЬNo, dear Tom, I wonтАЩt forget.тАЭ
тАЬThatтАЩs a capital girl,тАЭ said Tom. тАЬGoodbye, Loo.тАЭ
She gave him an affectionate good night, and went out with him to the door, whence the fires of Coketown could be seen, making the distance lurid. She stood there, looking steadfastly towards them, and listening to his departing steps. They retreated quickly, as glad to get away from Stone Lodge; and she stood there yet, when he was gone and all was quiet. It seemed as if, first in her own fire within the house, and then in the fiery haze without, she tried to discover what kind of woof Old Time, that greatest and longest-established Spinner of all, would weave from the threads he had already spun into a woman. But his factory is a secret place, his work is noiseless, and his hands are mutes.