Hard Times

brother Jem of the honourable and jocular member. He was positively agitated. He several times spoke with an emphasis, similar to the vulgar manner. He went in and went out in an unaccountable way, l

or messages that could not fail to have been entrusted to him, and demanding restitution on the spot. The dawn coming, the morning coming, and the day coming, and neither message nor letter coming with either, he went down to the count

wn. Mrs. Bounderby not there. He looked in at the Bank. Mr. Bounderby away and Mrs. Sparsit away.

'She was off somewhere at daybreak this morning. She's always full of mystery; I

you last n

aiting for you, Mr. Harthouse, till it came down as I never saw

ted from comi

lost every train but the mail. It would have been a pleasant job to go down by that on su

he

n my own bed a

see you

staring, 'could I see my sister

n? He made only one thing clear. It was, that whether she was in town or out of town, whether he had been premature with her who was so hard to comprehend, or she had lost courage, or they were discovered, or some mischance or mistake, at present

in the Lancashire manner-which would seem as likely as anything else in the present state of affairs-I'll dine,' said Mr. James Harthouse. 'Bou

and got through the intervening time as well as he could. That was not particularly well; for he remained in the greatest pe

be bad,' he yawned at one time, 'to give the waiter five shillings, and throw him.' At another time it occurred to him, 'Or a fellow of about thirteen or fourt

s approached that room. But, after dinner, when the day turned to twilight, and the twilight turned to night, and still no communication was made to him, it began to be as he expressed it, 'like the Holy Office a

read this newspaper, when the waiter appeared a

ir. You're wanted,

aid to the swell mob, caused Mr. Harthouse to ask the waiter in ret

Young lady outside, s

ide?

this do

t, very pretty. As he conducted her into the room and placed a chair for her, he observed, by the light of the candles, that she was even prettier than he had at first believed. Her face was innocent and youthful, and its

thouse?' she said,

ak to him with the most confiding eyes I ever saw, and

ters:' the blood really rose in his face as she began in these words: 'I am sure I may rely upon it to keep my vis

, I assu

ment beyond my own hope.' He thought, 'But that is very strong,' as he followed the momentary upward

'you have already guess

rs (which have appeared as many years),' he returned, 'on a lady's account. The hopes I

er within

t-

r fath

olness, and his perplexity increased. 'Then I cert

s insensible all through the night. I live at her father's, and was with he

tor spoke, her modest fearlessness, her truthfulness which put all artifice aside, her entire forgetfulness of herself in her earnest quiet holding to the object with which she had come; all this, together with her reliance on

st he

oncerting in the last degree. May I be permitted to inquire, if you are charged to c

o charge

th no doubt of your sincerity, excuse my saying that I cling to the belief that ther

ure you that you must believe that there is no more hope of your ever speaking w

r if I should, by infirmity of

true. There

smile upon his lips; but her mind looked over an

took a little time

part, that I am brought to a position so desolate as this banishment, I shall

e been with her since she came home, and that she has given me her confidence. I have no further trust, tha

at nest of addled eggs, where the birds of heaven would have lived

committing myself by any expression of sentiments towards her, not perfectly reconcilable with-in fact with-the domestic hearth; or in taking any advantage of her father's being a machine, or of her brother's being a whelp, or of her husband's being a bear; I beg to be allowed to assure you that I have had no

hing of but an ugly surface. He was silent for a moment; and then proceeded with a more self-p

confidence you have mentioned has been reposed, that I cannot refuse to contemplate the possibility (however unexpected) of my seeing the lady no more. I am solely to blame for the thing having come to this-and-a

y showed that her appeal

s to him again, 'of your first object. I may a

es

lige me by c

ave here immediately and finally. I am quite sure that you can mitigate in no other way the wrong and harm you have done. I am quite sure that it is the only compensation you have left it in your power to make. I do not say that it is much, or that it is enough; but it

arboured for the best purpose any reserve or pretence; if she had shown, or felt, the lightest trace of any sensitiveness to his ridicule or his astonishment, or any rem

on a public kind of business, preposterous enough in itself, but which I have gone in for, and sworn by, and am suppo

ct on Sissy, f

ubiously, 'it's so alarmingly absurd. It would make a man so ridiculous, aft

s the only reparation in your power, sir. I a

bout again. 'Upon my soul, I don't k

ot, now, to stip

topping again presently, and leaning against the chimney-p

ir,' returned Sissy, 'a

th the whelp. It was the self-same chimney-piece, and somehow he f

up, and laughing, and frowning, and walking off, and walking back again. 'But I see no way out of it. Wha

by the result, but she was happy i

ss, could have addressed me with the same success. I must not only regard myself as being in a very ridiculous p

said the am

ould possibly care

sy J

ty at parting. Rel

d from my father-he was only a stroller-and taken pity o

was

after standing transfixed a little while. 'The defeat may now be considered perfectly accomplished. Only a p

e. He took a pen upon the instant, and wrote the follow

own. Bored out of the plac

tiona

e

ng th

y fello

to bed

o get up, a

e found for the next fortnight. The other, similar in effect, to Mr. Gradgrind. Almost as soon as the ink was dry upon their superscr

mself that he had escaped the climax of a very bad business. But it was not so, at all. A secret sense of having failed and been ridiculous-a dread of what other fellows who went in for similar sorts of things, would say