I + 

Effects in the Bank + 

A sunny midsummer day. There was such a thing sometimes, even in Coketown. + 

Seen from a distance in such weather, Coketown lay shrouded in a haze of its own, which appeared impervious to the sunтАЩs rays. You only knew the town was there, because you knew there could have been no such sulky blotch upon the prospect without a town. A blur of soot and smoke, now confusedly tending this way, now that way, now aspiring to the vault of Heaven, now murkily creeping along the earth, as the wind rose and fell, or changed its quarter: a dense formless jumble, with sheets of cross light in it, that showed nothing but masses of darkness:тБатАФCoketown in the distance was suggestive of itself, though not a brick of it could be seen. + 

The wonder was, it was there at all. It had been ruined so often, that it was amazing how it had borne so many shocks. Surely there never was such fragile chinaware as that of which the millers of Coketown were made. Handle them never so lightly, and they fell to pieces with such ease that you might suspect them of having been flawed before. They were ruined, when they were required to send labouring children to school; they were ruined when inspectors were appointed to look into their works; they were ruined, when such inspectors considered it doubtful whether they were quite justified in chopping people up with their machinery; they were utterly undone, when it was hinted that perhaps they need not always make quite so much smoke. Besides Mr.┬аBounderbyтАЩs gold spoon which was generally received in Coketown, another prevalent fiction was very popular there. It took the form of a threat. Whenever a Coketowner felt he was ill-usedтБатАФthat is to say, whenever he was not left entirely alone, and it was proposed to hold him accountable for the consequences of any of his actsтБатАФhe was sure to come out with the awful menace, that he would тАЬsooner pitch his property into the Atlantic.тАЭ This had terrified the Home Secretary within an inch of his life, on several occasions. + 

However, the Coketowners were so patriotic after all, that they never had pitched their property into the Atlantic yet, but, on the contrary, had been kind enough to take mighty good care of it. So there it was, in the haze yonder; and it increased and multiplied. + 

The streets were hot and dusty on the summer day, and the sun was so bright that it even shone through the heavy vapour drooping over Coketown, and could not be looked at steadily. Stokers emerged from low underground doorways into factory yards, and sat on steps, and posts, and palings, wiping their swarthy visages, and contemplating coals. The whole town seemed to be frying in oil. There was a stifling smell of hot oil everywhere. The steam-engines shone with it, the dresses of the hands were soiled with it, the mills throughout their many stories oozed and trickled it. The atmosphere of those fairy palaces was like the breath of the simoom: and their inhabitants, wasting with heat, toiled languidly in the desert. But no temperature made the melancholy mad elephants more mad or more sane. Their wearisome heads went up and down at the same rate, in hot weather and cold, wet weather and dry, fair weather and foul. The measured motion of their shadows on the walls, was the substitute Coketown had to show for the shadows of rustling woods; while, for the summer hum of insects, it could offer, all the year round, from the dawn of Monday to the night of Saturday, the whirr of shafts and wheels. + 

Drowsily they whirred all through this sunny day, making the passenger more sleepy and more hot as he passed the humming walls of the mills. Sun-blinds, and sprinklings of water, a little cooled the main streets and the shops; but the mills, and the courts and alleys, baked at a fierce heat. Down upon the river that was black and thick with dye, some Coketown boys who were at largeтБатАФa rare sight thereтБатАФrowed a crazy boat, which made a spumous track upon the water as it jogged along, while every dip of an oar stirred up vile smells. But the sun itself, however beneficent, generally, was less kind to Coketown than hard frost, and rarely looked intently into any of its closer regions without engendering more death than life. So does the eye of Heaven itself become an evil eye, when incapable or sordid hands are interposed between it and the things it looks upon to bless. + 

Mrs.┬аSparsit sat in her afternoon apartment at the Bank, on the shadier side of the frying street. Office-hours were over: and at that period of the day, in warm weather, she usually embellished with her genteel presence, a managerial boardroom over the public office. Her own private sitting-room was a story higher, at the window of which post of observation she was ready, every morning, to greet Mr.┬аBounderby, as he came across the road, with the sympathizing recognition appropriate to a victim. He had been married now a year; and Mrs.┬аSparsit had never released him from her determined pity a moment. + 

The Bank offered no violence to the wholesome monotony of the town. It was another red brick house, with black outside shutters, green inside blinds, a black street-door up two white steps, a brazen doorplate, and a brazen door-handle full stop. It was a size larger than Mr.┬аBounderbyтАЩs house, as other houses were from a size to half-a-dozen sizes smaller; in all other particulars, it was strictly according to pattern. + 

Mrs.┬аSparsit was conscious that by coming in the evening-tide among the desks and writing implements, she shed a feminine, not to say also aristocratic, grace upon the office. Seated, with her needlework or netting apparatus, at the window, she had a self-laudatory sense of correcting, by her ladylike deportment, the rude business aspect of the place. With this impression of her interesting character upon her, Mrs.┬аSparsit considered herself, in some sort, the Bank Fairy. The townspeople who, in their passing and repassing, saw her there, regarded her as the Bank Dragon keeping watch over the treasures of the mine. + 

What those treasures were, Mrs.┬аSparsit knew as little as they did. Gold and silver coin, precious paper, secrets that if divulged would bring vague destruction upon vague persons (generally, however, people whom she disliked), were the chief items in her ideal catalogue thereof. For the rest, she knew that after office-hours, she reigned supreme over all the office furniture, and over a locked-up iron room with three locks, against the door of which strong chamber the light porter laid his head every night, on a truckle bed, that disappeared at cockcrow. Further, she was lady paramount over certain vaults in the basement, sharply spiked off from communication with the predatory world; and over the relics of the current dayтАЩs work, consisting of blots of ink, worn-out pens, fragments of wafers, and scraps of paper torn so small, that nothing interesting could ever be deciphered on them when Mrs.┬аSparsit tried. Lastly, she was guardian over a little armoury of cutlasses and carbines, arrayed in vengeful order above one of the official chimneypieces; and over that respectable tradition never to be separated from a place of business claiming to be wealthyтБатАФa row of fire-bucketsтБатАФvessels calculated to be of no physical utility on any occasion, but observed to exercise a fine moral influence, almost equal to bullion, on most beholders. + 

A deaf serving-woman and the light porter completed Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs empire. The deaf serving-woman was rumoured to be wealthy; and a saying had for years gone about among the lower orders of Coketown, that she would be murdered some night when the Bank was shut, for the sake of her money. It was generally considered, indeed, that she had been due some time, and ought to have fallen long ago; but she had kept her life, and her situation, with an ill-conditioned tenacity that occasioned much offence and disappointment. + 

Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs tea was just set for her on a pert little table, with its tripod of legs in an attitude, which she insinuated after office-hours, into the company of the stern, leathern-topped, long board-table that bestrode the middle of the room. The light porter placed the tea-tray on it, knuckling his forehead as a form of homage. + 

тАЬThank you, Bitzer,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit. + 

тАЬThank you, maтАЩam,тАЭ returned the light porter. He was a very light porter indeed; as light as in the days when he blinkingly defined a horse, for girl number twenty. + 

тАЬAll is shut up, Bitzer?тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit. + 

тАЬAll is shut up, maтАЩam.тАЭ + 

тАЬAnd what,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, pouring out her tea, тАЬis the news of the day? Anything?тАЭ + 

тАЬWell, maтАЩam, I canтАЩt say that I have heard anything particular. Our people are a bad lot, maтАЩam; but that is no news, unfortunately.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhat are the restless wretches doing now?тАЭ asked Mrs.┬аSparsit. + 

тАЬMerely going on in the old way, maтАЩam. Uniting, and leaguing, and engaging to stand by one another.тАЭ + 

тАЬIt is much to be regretted,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, making her nose more Roman and her eyebrows more Coriolanian in the strength of her severity, тАЬthat the united masters allow of any such class-combinations.тАЭ + 

тАЬYes, maтАЩam,тАЭ said Bitzer. + 

тАЬBeing united themselves, they ought one and all to set their faces against employing any man who is united with any other man,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit. + 

тАЬThey have done that, maтАЩam,тАЭ returned Bitzer; тАЬbut it rather fell through, maтАЩam.тАЭ + 

тАЬI do not pretend to understand these things,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, with dignity, тАЬmy lot having been signally cast in a widely different sphere; and Mr.┬аSparsit, as a Powler, being also quite out of the pale of any such dissensions. I only know that these people must be conquered, and that itтАЩs high time it was done, once for all.тАЭ + 

тАЬYes, maтАЩam,тАЭ returned Bitzer, with a demonstration of great respect for Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs oracular authority. тАЬYou couldnтАЩt put it clearer, I am sure, maтАЩam.тАЭ + 

As this was his usual hour for having a little confidential chat with Mrs.┬аSparsit, and as he had already caught her eye and seen that she was going to ask him something, he made a pretence of arranging the rulers, inkstands, and so forth, while that lady went on with her tea, glancing through the open window, down into the street. + 

тАЬHas it been a busy day, Bitzer?тАЭ asked Mrs.┬аSparsit. + 

тАЬNot a very busy day, my lady. About an average day.тАЭ He now and then slided into my lady, instead of maтАЩam, as an involuntary acknowledgment of Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs personal dignity and claims to reverence. + 

тАЬThe clerks,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, carefully brushing an imperceptible crumb of bread and butter from her left-hand mitten, тАЬare trustworthy, punctual, and industrious, of course?тАЭ + 

тАЬYes, maтАЩam, pretty fair, maтАЩam. With the usual exception.тАЭ + 

He held the respectable office of general spy and informer in the establishment, for which volunteer service he received a present at Christmas, over and above his weekly wage. He had grown into an extremely clearheaded, cautious, prudent young man, who was safe to rise in the world. His mind was so exactly regulated, that he had no affections or passions. All his proceedings were the result of the nicest and coldest calculation; and it was not without cause that Mrs.┬аSparsit habitually observed of him, that he was a young man of the steadiest principle she had ever known. Having satisfied himself, on his fatherтАЩs death, that his mother had a right of settlement in Coketown, this excellent young economist had asserted that right for her with such a steadfast adherence to the principle of the case, that she had been shut up in the workhouse ever since. It must be admitted that he allowed her half a pound of tea a year, which was weak in him: first, because all gifts have an inevitable tendency to pauperise the recipient, and secondly, because his only reasonable transaction in that commodity would have been to buy it for as little as he could possibly give, and sell it for as much as he could possibly get; it having been clearly ascertained by philosophers that in this is comprised the whole duty of manтБатАФnot a part of manтАЩs duty, but the whole. + 

тАЬPretty fair, maтАЩam. With the usual exception, maтАЩam,тАЭ repeated Bitzer. + 

тАЬAhтБатАФh!тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, shaking her head over her teacup, and taking a long gulp. + 

тАЬMr.┬аThomas, maтАЩam, I doubt Mr.┬аThomas very much, maтАЩam, I donтАЩt like his ways at all.тАЭ + 

тАЬBitzer,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, in a very impressive manner, тАЬdo you recollect my having said anything to you respecting names?тАЭ + 

тАЬI beg your pardon, maтАЩam. ItтАЩs quite true that you did object to names being used, and theyтАЩre always best avoided.тАЭ + 

тАЬPlease to remember that I have a charge here,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, with her air of state. тАЬI hold a trust here, Bitzer, under Mr.┬аBounderby. However improbable both Mr.┬аBounderby and myself might have deemed it years ago, that he would ever become my patron, making me an annual compliment, I cannot but regard him in that light. From Mr.┬аBounderby I have received every acknowledgment of my social station, and every recognition of my family descent, that I could possibly expect. More, far more. Therefore, to my patron I will be scrupulously true. And I do not consider, I will not consider, I cannot consider,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, with a most extensive stock on hand of honour and morality, тАЬthat I should be scrupulously true, if I allowed names to be mentioned under this roof, that are unfortunatelyтБатАФmost unfortunatelyтБатАФno doubt of thatтБатАФconnected with his.тАЭ + 

Bitzer knuckled his forehead again, and again begged pardon. + 

тАЬNo, Bitzer,тАЭ continued Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬsay an individual, and I will hear you; say Mr.┬аThomas, and you must excuse me.тАЭ + 

тАЬWith the usual exception, maтАЩam,тАЭ said Bitzer, trying back, тАЬof an individual.тАЭ + 

тАЬAhтБатАФh!тАЭ Mrs.┬аSparsit repeated the ejaculation, the shake of the head over her teacup, and the long gulp, as taking up the conversation again at the point where it had been interrupted. + 

тАЬAn individual, maтАЩam,тАЭ said Bitzer, тАЬhas never been what he ought to have been, since he first came into the place. He is a dissipated, extravagant idler. He is not worth his salt, maтАЩam. He wouldnтАЩt get it either, if he hadnтАЩt a friend and relation at court, maтАЩam!тАЭ + 

тАЬAhтБатАФh!тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, with another melancholy shake of her head. + 

тАЬI only hope, maтАЩam,тАЭ pursued Bitzer, тАЬthat his friend and relation may not supply him with the means of carrying on. Otherwise, maтАЩam, we know out of whose pocket that money comes.тАЭ + 

тАЬAhтБатАФh!тАЭ sighed Mrs.┬аSparsit again, with another melancholy shake of her head. + 

тАЬHe is to be pitied, maтАЩam. The last party I have alluded to, is to be pitied, maтАЩam,тАЭ said Bitzer. + 

тАЬYes, Bitzer,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit. тАЬI have always pitied the delusion, always.тАЭ + 

тАЬAs to an individual, maтАЩam,тАЭ said Bitzer, dropping his voice and drawing nearer, тАЬhe is as improvident as any of the people in this town. And you know what their improvidence is, maтАЩam. No one could wish to know it better than a lady of your eminence does.тАЭ + 

тАЬThey would do well,тАЭ returned Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬto take example by you, Bitzer.тАЭ + 

тАЬThank you, maтАЩam. But, since you do refer to me, now look at me, maтАЩam. I have put by a little, maтАЩam, already. That gratuity which I receive at Christmas, maтАЩam: I never touch it. I donтАЩt even go the length of my wages, though theyтАЩre not high, maтАЩam. Why canтАЩt they do as I have done, maтАЩam? What one person can do, another can do.тАЭ + 

This, again, was among the fictions of Coketown. Any capitalist there, who had made sixty thousand pounds out of sixpence, always professed to wonder why the sixty thousand nearest hands didnтАЩt each make sixty thousand pounds out of sixpence, and more or less reproached them every one for not accomplishing the little feat. What I did you can do. Why donтАЩt you go and do it? + 

тАЬAs to their wanting recreations, maтАЩam,тАЭ said Bitzer, тАЬitтАЩs stuff and nonsense. I donтАЩt want recreations. I never did, and I never shall; I donтАЩt like тАЩem. As to their combining together; there are many of them, I have no doubt, that by watching and informing upon one another could earn a trifle now and then, whether in money or good will, and improve their livelihood. Then, why donтАЩt they improve it, maтАЩam! ItтАЩs the first consideration of a rational creature, and itтАЩs what they pretend to want.тАЭ + 

тАЬPretend indeed!тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit. + 

тАЬI am sure we are constantly hearing, maтАЩam, till it becomes quite nauseous, concerning their wives and families,тАЭ said Bitzer. тАЬWhy look at me, maтАЩam! I donтАЩt want a wife and family. Why should they?тАЭ + 

тАЬBecause they are improvident,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit. + 

тАЬYes, maтАЩam,тАЭ returned Bitzer, тАЬthatтАЩs where it is. If they were more provident and less perverse, maтАЩam, what would they do? They would say, тАШWhile my hat covers my family,тАЩ or тАШwhile my bonnet covers my family,тАЩтБатАФas the case might be, maтАЩamтБатАФтАШI have only one to feed, and thatтАЩs the person I most like to feed.тАЩтАКтАЭ + 

тАЬTo be sure,тАЭ assented Mrs.┬аSparsit, eating muffin. + 

тАЬThank you, maтАЩam,тАЭ said Bitzer, knuckling his forehead again, in return for the favour of Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs improving conversation. тАЬWould you wish a little more hot water, maтАЩam, or is there anything else that I could fetch you?тАЭ + 

тАЬNothing just now, Bitzer.тАЭ + 

тАЬThank you, maтАЩam. I shouldnтАЩt wish to disturb you at your meals, maтАЩam, particularly tea, knowing your partiality for it,тАЭ said Bitzer, craning a little to look over into the street from where he stood; тАЬbut thereтАЩs a gentleman been looking up here for a minute or so, maтАЩam, and he has come across as if he was going to knock. That is his knock, maтАЩam, no doubt.тАЭ + 

He stepped to the window; and looking out, and drawing in his head again, confirmed himself with, тАЬYes, maтАЩam. Would you wish the gentleman to be shown in, maтАЩam?тАЭ + 

тАЬI donтАЩt know who it can be,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, wiping her mouth and arranging her mittens. + 

тАЬA stranger, maтАЩam, evidently.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhat a stranger can want at the Bank at this time of the evening, unless he comes upon some business for which he is too late, I donтАЩt know,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬbut I hold a charge in this establishment from Mr.┬аBounderby, and I will never shrink from it. If to see him is any part of the duty I have accepted, I will see him. Use your own discretion, Bitzer.тАЭ + 

Here the visitor, all unconscious of Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs magnanimous words, repeated his knock so loudly that the light porter hastened down to open the door; while Mrs.┬аSparsit took the precaution of concealing her little table, with all its appliances upon it, in a cupboard, and then decamped upstairs, that she might appear, if needful, with the greater dignity. + 

тАЬIf you please, maтАЩam, the gentleman would wish to see you,тАЭ said Bitzer, with his light eye at Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs keyhole. So, Mrs.┬аSparsit, who had improved the interval by touching up her cap, took her classical features downstairs again, and entered the boardroom in the manner of a Roman matron going outside the city walls to treat with an invading general. + 

The visitor having strolled to the window, and being then engaged in looking carelessly out, was as unmoved by this impressive entry as man could possibly be. He stood whistling to himself with all imaginable coolness, with his hat still on, and a certain air of exhaustion upon him, in part arising from excessive summer, and in part from excessive gentility. For it was to be seen with half an eye that he was a thorough gentleman, made to the model of the time; weary of everything, and putting no more faith in anything than Lucifer. + 

тАЬI believe, sir,тАЭ quoth Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬyou wished to see me.тАЭ + 

тАЬI beg your pardon,тАЭ he said, turning and removing his hat; тАЬpray excuse me.тАЭ + 

тАЬHumph!тАЭ thought Mrs.┬аSparsit, as she made a stately bend. тАЬFive and thirty, good-looking, good figure, good teeth, good voice, good breeding, well-dressed, dark hair, bold eyes.тАЭ All which Mrs.┬аSparsit observed in her womanly wayтБатАФlike the Sultan who put his head in the pail of waterтБатАФmerely in dipping down and coming up again. + 

тАЬPlease to be seated, sir,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit. + 

тАЬThank you. Allow me.тАЭ He placed a chair for her, but remained himself carelessly lounging against the table. тАЬI left my servant at the railway looking after the luggageтБатАФvery heavy train and vast quantity of it in the vanтБатАФand strolled on, looking about me. Exceedingly odd place. Will you allow me to ask you if itтАЩs always as black as this?тАЭ + 

тАЬIn general much blacker,тАЭ returned Mrs.┬аSparsit, in her uncompromising way. + 

тАЬIs it possible! Excuse me: you are not a native, I think?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo, sir,тАЭ returned Mrs.┬аSparsit. тАЬIt was once my good or ill fortune, as it may beтБатАФbefore I became a widowтБатАФto move in a very different sphere. My husband was a Powler.тАЭ + 

тАЬBeg your pardon, really!тАЭ said the stranger. тАЬWasтБатАФ?тАЭ + 

Mrs.┬аSparsit repeated, тАЬA Powler.тАЭ + 

тАЬPowler Family,тАЭ said the stranger, after reflecting a few moments. Mrs.┬аSparsit signified assent. The stranger seemed a little more fatigued than before. + 

тАЬYou must be very much bored here?тАЭ was the inference he drew from the communication. + 

тАЬI am the servant of circumstances, sir,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬand I have long adapted myself to the governing power of my life.тАЭ + 

тАЬVery philosophical,тАЭ returned the stranger, тАЬand very exemplary and laudable, andтБатАФтАЭ It seemed to be scarcely worth his while to finish the sentence, so he played with his watch-chain wearily. + 

тАЬMay I be permitted to ask, sir,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬto what I am indebted for the favour ofтБатАФтАЭ + 

тАЬAssuredly,тАЭ said the stranger. тАЬMuch obliged to you for reminding me. I am the bearer of a letter of introduction to Mr.┬аBounderby, the banker. Walking through this extraordinarily black town, while they were getting dinner ready at the hotel, I asked a fellow whom I met; one of the working people; who appeared to have been taking a shower-bath of something fluffy, which I assume to be the raw materialтБатАФтАЭ + 

Mrs.┬аSparsit inclined her head. + 

тАЬтБатАФRaw materialтБатАФwhere Mr.┬аBounderby, the banker, might reside. Upon which, misled no doubt by the word Banker, he directed me to the Bank. Fact being, I presume, that Mr.┬аBounderby the Banker does not reside in the edifice in which I have the honour of offering this explanation?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo, sir,тАЭ returned Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬhe does not.тАЭ + 

тАЬThank you. I had no intention of delivering my letter at the present moment, nor have I. But strolling on to the Bank to kill time, and having the good fortune to observe at the window,тАЭ towards which he languidly waved his hand, then slightly bowed, тАЬa lady of a very superior and agreeable appearance, I considered that I could not do better than take the liberty of asking that lady where Mr.┬аBounderby the Banker does live. Which I accordingly venture, with all suitable apologies, to do.тАЭ + 

The inattention and indolence of his manner were sufficiently relieved, to Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs thinking, by a certain gallantry at ease, which offered her homage too. Here he was, for instance, at this moment, all but sitting on the table, and yet lazily bending over her, as if he acknowledged an attraction in her that made her charmingтБатАФin her way. + 

тАЬBanks, I know, are always suspicious, and officially must be,тАЭ said the stranger, whose lightness and smoothness of speech were pleasant likewise; suggesting matter far more sensible and humorous than it ever containedтБатАФwhich was perhaps a shrewd device of the founder of this numerous sect, whosoever may have been that great man: тАЬtherefore I may observe that my letterтБатАФhere it isтБатАФis from the member for this placeтБатАФGradgrindтБатАФwhom I have had the pleasure of knowing in London.тАЭ + 

Mrs.┬аSparsit recognized the hand, intimated that such confirmation was quite unnecessary, and gave Mr.┬аBounderbyтАЩs address, with all needful clues and directions in aid. + 

тАЬThousand thanks,тАЭ said the stranger. тАЬOf course you know the Banker well?тАЭ + 

тАЬYes, sir,тАЭ rejoined Mrs.┬аSparsit. тАЬIn my dependent relation towards him, I have known him ten years.тАЭ + 

тАЬQuite an eternity! I think he married GradgrindтАЩs daughter?тАЭ + 

тАЬYes,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, suddenly compressing her mouth, тАЬhe had thatтБатАФhonour.тАЭ + 

тАЬThe lady is quite a philosopher, I am told?тАЭ + 

тАЬIndeed, sir,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit. тАЬIs she?тАЭ + 

тАЬExcuse my impertinent curiosity,тАЭ pursued the stranger, fluttering over Mrs.┬аSparsitтАЩs eyebrows, with a propitiatory air, тАЬbut you know the family, and know the world. I am about to know the family, and may have much to do with them. Is the lady so very alarming? Her father gives her such a portentously hardheaded reputation, that I have a burning desire to know. Is she absolutely unapproachable? Repellently and stunningly clever? I see, by your meaning smile, you think not. You have poured balm into my anxious soul. As to age, now. Forty? Five and thirty?тАЭ + 

Mrs.┬аSparsit laughed outright. тАЬA chit,тАЭ said she. тАЬNot twenty when she was married.тАЭ + 

тАЬI give you my honour, Mrs.┬аPowler,тАЭ returned the stranger, detaching himself from the table, тАЬthat I never was so astonished in my life!тАЭ + 

It really did seem to impress him, to the utmost extent of his capacity of being impressed. He looked at his informant for full a quarter of a minute, and appeared to have the surprise in his mind all the time. тАЬI assure you, Mrs.┬аPowler,тАЭ he then said, much exhausted, тАЬthat the fatherтАЩs manner prepared me for a grim and stony maturity. I am obliged to you, of all things, for correcting so absurd a mistake. Pray excuse my intrusion. Many thanks. Good day!тАЭ + 

He bowed himself out; and Mrs.┬аSparsit, hiding in the window curtain, saw him languishing down the street on the shady side of the way, observed of all the town. + 

тАЬWhat do you think of the gentleman, Bitzer?тАЭ she asked the light porter, when he came to take away. + 

тАЬSpends a deal of money on his dress, maтАЩam.тАЭ + 

тАЬIt must be admitted,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, тАЬthat itтАЩs very tasteful.тАЭ + 

тАЬYes, maтАЩam,тАЭ returned Bitzer, тАЬif thatтАЩs worth the money.тАЭ + 

тАЬBesides which, maтАЩam,тАЭ resumed Bitzer, while he was polishing the table, тАЬhe looks to me as if he gamed.тАЭ + 

тАЬItтАЩs immoral to game,тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit. + 

тАЬItтАЩs ridiculous, maтАЩam,тАЭ said Bitzer, тАЬbecause the chances are against the players.тАЭ + 

Whether it was that the heat prevented Mrs.┬аSparsit from working, or whether it was that her hand was out, she did no work that night. She sat at the window, when the sun began to sink behind the smoke; she sat there, when the smoke was burning red, when the colour faded from it, when darkness seemed to rise slowly out of the ground, and creep upward, upward, up to the housetops, up the church steeple, up to the summits of the factory chimneys, up to the sky. Without a candle in the room, Mrs.┬аSparsit sat at the window, with her hands before her, not thinking much of the sounds of evening; the whooping of boys, the barking of dogs, the rumbling of wheels, the steps and voices of passengers, the shrill street cries, the clogs upon the pavement when it was their hour for going by, the shutting-up of shop-shutters. Not until the light porter announced that her nocturnal sweetbread was ready, did Mrs.┬аSparsit arouse herself from her reverie, and convey her dense black eyebrowsтБатАФby that time creased with meditation, as if they needed ironing out-upstairs. + 

тАЬO, you fool!тАЭ said Mrs.┬аSparsit, when she was alone at her supper. Whom she meant, she did not say; but she could scarcely have meant the sweetbread. + 