 Section 11 of Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Book 2, chapters 4 and 5. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter 4 Men and Brothers Oh, my friends, the downtrodden operatives of Coke Town. Oh, my friends and fellow countrymen, the slaves of an iron-handed and a grinding despotism. Oh, my friends and fellow sufferers and fellow workmen and fellow men, I tell you that the hour is come when we must rally round what another is one united power and crumble into dust the oppressors that too long have battened upon the plunder of our families, upon the sweat of our brows, upon the labor of our hands, upon the strength of our sinews, upon the God-created glorious rites of humanity, and upon the holy and eternal privileges of brotherhood. Good, hear, hear, hear, hurrah! And other cries arose in many voices from various parts of the densely crowded and suffocating close hall in which the orator perched on his stage, delivered himself of this and what other froth and fume he had in him. He had declaimed himself into a violent heat and was as hoarse as he was hot by dint of roaring at the top of his voice under a flaring gaslight, clenching his fists, knitting his brows, setting his teeth, and pounding with his arms. He had taken so much out of himself by this time that he was brought to a stop and called for a glass of water. As he stood there, trying to quench his fiery face with his drink of water, the comparison between the orator and the crowd of attentive faces turned towards him was extremely to his disadvantage. Judging him by nature's evidence, he was above the mass in very little but the stage on which he stood. In many great respects he was essentially below them. He was not so honest, he was not so manly, he was not so good-humored. He substituted cunning for their simplicity and passion for their safe, solid sense. An ill-made high-shouldered man with lowering brows and his features crushed into a habitually sour expression, he contrasted most unfavorably even in his mongrel dress with the great body of his hearers in their plain working clothes. Strange as it always is to consider any assembly in the act of submissively resigning itself to the dreariness of some complacent person, lord or commoner, whom three-fourths of it could, by no human means, raise out of the slow of inanity to their own intellectual level, it was particularly strange and was even particularly affecting to see this crowd of earnest faces whose honesty in the main no competent observer free from bias could doubt so agitated by such a leader. Good, hear, hear, hurrah, the eagerness, both of attention and intention exhibited in all the countenances made them a most impressive sight. There was no carelessness, no languor, no idle curiosity, none of the many shades of indifference to be seen in all other assemblies visible for one moment there, that every man felt his condition to be somehow or other worse than it might be, that every man considered it incumbent on him to join the rest towards the making of it better, that every man felt his only hope to be in his allying himself to the comrades by whom he was surrounded and that in this belief, right or wrong, unhappily wrong, then, the whole of that crowd were gravely, deeply, faithfully in earnest must have been plain to anyone who chose to see what was there as the bare beams of the roof and the whitened brick walls. Nor could any such spectator fail to know in his own breast that these men, through their varied delusions, showed great qualities, susceptible of being turned to the happiest and best account and that to pretend, on the strength of sweeping axioms, howsoever cut and dried, that they were astray, holy without cause, and of their own irrational wills, was to pretend that there could be smoke without fire, death without birth, harvest without seed, anything or everything produced from nothing. The orator, having refreshed himself, wiped his corrugated forehead from left to right several times with his handkerchief, folded into a pad, and concentrated all his revived forces in a sneer of great disdain and bitterness. But, oh my friends and brothers, oh men of and Englishmen, the downtrodden operatives of Coke Town, what shall we say of that man, that working man, that I should find it necessary to so libel the glorious name, who being practically and well acquainted with the grievances and wrongs of you, the injured pith and marrow of this land, and having heard you with a noble and majestic unanimity, that will make tyrants tremble, resolve for to subscribe to the funds of the United Aggregate Tribunal, and to abide by the injunctions issued by that body for your benefit, whatever they may be. What, I ask you, will you say that of working man, since such I must acknowledge him to be, who at such time deserts his post and sells his flag, who at such a time turns a traitor and a craven and a requriant, who at such a time is not ashamed to make to you the dastardly and humiliating avowal that he will hold himself aloof and will not be one of those associated in the gallant stand for freedom and for right. The assembly was divided at this point. There were some groans and hisses, but the general sense of honor was much too strong for the condemnation of a man unheard. Be sure you're right, Slackbridge. Put him up. Let's hear him. Such things were said on many sides. Finally, one strong voice called out, Is the man here? If the man's here, Slackbridge, let the man himself steadow you, which was received with a round of applause. Slackbridge, the orator, looked about him with a withering smile and holding out his right hand at arm's length, as the manner of all Slackbridges is, to still the thundering sea waited until there was a profound silence. Oh, my friends and fellow men, said Slackbridge then, shaking his head with violent scorn. I do not wonder that you, the prostrate sons of labor, are incredulous of the existence of such a man, but he who sold his birthright for a mess of potage existed, and Judas Iscariot existed, and Casselre existed, and this man exists. Here, a brief press and confusion near the stage ended in the man himself standing at the orator's side before the concourse. He was pale and a little moved in the face. His lips especially showed it, but he stood quiet with his left hand at his chin, waiting to be heard. There was a chairman to regulate the proceedings, and this functionary now took the case into his own hands. My friends, he said, by virtue of my office as your president, I ask as all your friends Slackbridge, who may be a little over-hette in this business to take his seat while this man, Stephen Blackpool, is heron. You all know this man, Stephen Blackpool, you know him, along his misfortunes and his good name. With that the chairman took him frankly by the hand and sat down again. Slackbridge likewise sat down, wiping his hot forehead, always from left to right, and never the reverse way. My friends, Stephen began in the midst of a dead calm. I had what been spoken of me, and it is likely that I shunned to mend it. But I'd life for you to hear in the truth concerning my son for my lips than for many other ones, though I never could speak before so many without being murdered and muddled. Slackbridge shook his head as if he would shake it off in his bitterness. I am the one single hand in Boundaryby's mill, O all the men there, as don't come in with me the proposed regulations. I cannot come in whim. My friends, I doubt they're doing you any good. Licker they'll do you hurt. Slackbridge laughed, folded his arms, and frowned sarcastically. But tense so much for that as I stands out, if there were awe I'd come in with the rest. But I have my reasons, mine, you see, for being hindered, not only now, but all this, always life long. Slackbridge jumped up and stood beside him, gnashing and tearing. Oh, my friends, what, but this, did I tell you? Oh, my fellow countrymen, what warning, but this, did I give you? And how shows this requriant conduct in man on whom unequal laws are known to have fallen heavy? Oh, you Englishmen, I ask you, how does this subordination show in one of yourselves, who is thus consenting to his own undoing, and to yours, and to your children's, and your children's, children's? There was some applause, and some crying of shame upon the man. But the greater part of the audience were quiet. They looked at Steppen's worn face, rendered more pathetic by the homely emotions it evinced. And in the kindness of their nature, they were more sorry than indignant. Tis this galley gets trade for to speak, said Steppen. And he's paid for it, and he knows his work. Let him keep to it. Let him give no heed to what I hadn't to bear. That's not for him. That's not for nobody but me. There was propriety, not to say a dignity in these words, that made the hearers yet more quiet and attentive. The same strong voice called out, Slackwidge, let the man be here, and then how'd the tongue? Then the place was wonderfully still. May brethren, said Steppen, whose low voice was distinctly heard, and my fellow workmen. For that you are to me, though not as I know's on, to this delegate here. I have been, I have but put a word to send, and I could send no more if I was to speak till strike a day. I know we'll all what's afore me. I know we'll that you are all resolved to have no more adieu with a man who is not we in this matter. I know we'll that if I was a lion partish, either road you'd feel it right to pass me by as a foreigner on stranger. What I had gotten, I must make the best on. Stephen Blackpole, said the chairman, rising, think on it again, think on it once again, lad, for thou shunned by odd old friends. There was a universal murmur to the same effect, though no man articulated a word. Every eye was fixed on Steppen's face. To repent of his determination would be to take a load from all their minds. He looked around him, and knew that it was so. Not a grain of anger with them was in his heart. He knew them, far below their surface weaknesses and misconceptions as no one but their fellow labourer could. I hath thou torn it above a bit, sir. I simply cannot come in. I mongold thee the way's laser for me. I won't take my leave of our here. He made a sort of reverence to them by holding up his arms and stood for the moment in that attitude, not speaking until they slowly dropped at his sides. Many's the pleasant word, as some here has spoken with me. Many's the face I see here, as I first seen when I were young and lighter heart than now. I had never had to fracture forth sin ever. I were born with any of my like. God knows I have none now that's oh my makin'. Y'all call me traitor, and that, I mean to say, addressing Slackbridge, but is easier to call than make out. So let be. He had moved away a pace or two to come down from the platform when he remembered something that he had not said and returned again. Happily, he said, turning his feraled face slowly about, that he might as it were individually address the whole audience, those both near and distant. Happily, when this question has been taken up and discussed, there'll be a threat to turn out if I'm let to work among you. I hope I shall die ere ever such a time comes, and I shall work solitary among you unless it comes. Truly, I'm undo it, my friends. Not to brave you, but to live. I had no but work to live by, and wherever can I go, I who had worked sin, I were no higher in a coke town here. I make no complaints of bein' turned to the wall, bein' outcastin' or over-lookin' for this time forward, but I hope I shall be let to work. If there is any right for me at all, my friends, I think tis that. Not a word was spoken. Not a sound was audible in the building, but the slight rustle of men moving a little apart all along the center of the room to open a means of passing out to the man with whom they had all bound themselves to renounce companionship, looking at no one and going his way with a lowly steadiness upon him that asserted nothing and sought nothing. Old Steffen, with all his troubles on his head, left the scene. Then Slackbridge, who had kept his oratorical arm extended during the going out as if he were repressing with infinite solicitude and by a wonderful moral power, the vehement passions of the multitude applied himself to raising their spirits. Had not the Roman Brutus, oh, my British countrymen, condemned his son to death, and had not the Spartan mothers, oh, my soon-to-be victorious friends, driven their flying children on the points of their enemy's swords, then was it not the sacred duty of the men of Coketown, with forefathers before them, and admiring world and company with them, and a posterity to come after them, to hurl out traitors from the tents they had pitched in a sacred and godlike cause? The winds of heaven answered, yes, and bore, yes, east, west, north and south, and consequently three chairs for the united, aggregate tribunal. Slackbridge acted as a fugalman and gave the time, the multitude of doubtful faces, a little conscience-stricken, brightened at the sound and took it up. Private feeling must yield to the common cause, hurrah, the roof yet vibrated with the cheering when the assembly dispersed. Thus easily did Steffen Blackpool fall into the loneliest of lives, the life of solitude among a familiar crowd, the stranger in the land who looks into ten thousand faces, for some answering look and never finds it, is in cheering society as compared with him who passes ten averted faces daily that were once the countenances of friends. Such experience was to be Steffen's now in every waking moment of his life, at his work, on his way to it and from it, at his door, at his window everywhere. By general consent they even avoided that side of the street which he habitually walked and left it of all the working men to him only. He had been for many years a quiet, silent man, associating but little with other men and used to companionship with his own thoughts. He had never known before the strength of the want in his heart for the frequent recognition of a nod, a look, a word, or the immense amount of relief that had been poured into it by drops through such small means. It was even harder than he could have believed possible to separate in his own conscience his abandonment by all his fellows from a hapless sense of shame and disgrace. The first four days of his endurance were days so long and heavy that he began to be appalled by the prospect before him. Not only did he see no Rachel all the time but he avoided every chance of seeing her for although he knew that the prohibition did not yet formally extend to the women working in the factories he found that some of them with whom he was acquainted were changed to him and he feared to try others and dreaded that Rachel might be even singled out from the rest if she were seen in his company. So he had been quite alone during the four days and had spoken to no one when as he was leaving his work at night a young man of a very light complexion accosted him in the street. Your name's black pool ain't it? said the young man. Stefan colored to find himself with his hat in his hand and his gratitude for being spoken to or in the suddenness of it or both. He made a faint of adjusting the lining and said yes. You are the end that they have sent to Coventry, I mean. said Bitzer, the very light young man in question. Stefan answered yes again. I suppose so from there all appearing to keep away from you Mr. Boundaby wants to speak to you. You know his house, don't you? Stefan said yes again. Then goes straight up there. Well you said Bitzer, you're expected and have only to tell the servant it's you. I belong to the bank so if you go straight up without me I was sent to fetch you. You'll save me a walk. Stefan, whose way had been in the contrary direction, turned about and betook himself as in duty bound to the red brick castle of the giant Boundaby. End of Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Man and Masters Well, Stefan said Boundaby in his windy manner. What's this I hear? What have these pests of the earth been doing to you? Come in, speak up. It was into the drawing room that he was bitten. A tea-table was set out and Mr. Boundaby's young wife and her brother and a great gentleman from London were present to whom Stefan made his obeisance, closing the door and standing near it with his hat and his hand. This is the man I was telling you about, Hart House, said Mr. Boundaby, the gentleman he dressed, who was talking to Mrs. Boundaby on the sofa, got up, saying in an indolent way, oh, really, and dawdled to the hearth rug where Mr. Boundaby stood. Now, said Boundaby, speak up. After four days he had passed this address fell rudely and discordantly on Stefan's ear. Besides being a rough handling of his wounded mind, it seemed to assume that he really was the self-interested deserter he had been called. What were it, sir? said Stefan, as you were pleased to want with me. I've told you, returned Boundaby, speak up like a man since you are a man and tell us about yourself in this combination. We are pardoned, sir, said Stefan Blackpool. I had not to sin about it. Mr. Boundaby, who was always more or less like a wind, finding something in his way here, began to blow at it directly. No, look here, Hart House, said he, here's a specimen of them. When this man was here once before, I warned this man against the mischievous strangers who were always about and ought to be hanged wherever they are found and I told this man that he was going in the wrong direction. Now, would you believe it that although they have put this mark upon him, he is such a slave to them still he's afraid to open his lips about them. I said as I had not to say, sir, not as I was feared or open in my lips. You said, ah, I know what you said more than that. I know what you mean, you see, not always the same thing by the Lord Harry, quite different things. You had better tell us at once that that fellow slack bridge is not in the town stirring up the people to mutiny and that he is not a regular qualified leader of the people that is a most confounded scoundrel. You had better tell us so at once. You can't deceive me. You want to tell us so. Why don't you? Oh, I'm as sorry as you, sir, when the people's leader is as bad, said Steffen, shaking his head. They take such as offers. Happily it is not the smartest of their misfortunes when they can get no better. The wind began to get boisterous. Now you'll think this pretty well, hard house and bound to be. You'll think this tolerably strong you'll say upon my soul. This is a tidy specimen of what my friends have to deal with, but this is nothing, sir. You shall hear me ask this man a question. Mr. Blackpool, winds springing up very fast, may I take the liberty of asking you how it happens that you refuse to be in this combination? How it happens? Ah, said Mr. Bounderby with his thumbs and his arms of his coat and jerking his head and shutting his eyes in confidence with the opposite wall. How it happens? I live for not sir, but sin you put the question and not wanting to be a veiled manor, and I'll answer. I have passed a promise. Not to me, you know, said Bounderby, gusty weather with the seatful calms, one now prevailing. Oh, no, sir, not to you. As for me any consideration for me has had just nothing at all to do with it, said Bounderby, still in confidence with the wall, if only a Josiah Bounderby of Coaktown had been in question, you would have joined and made no bones about it. Why, yes, sir, it is true. Though he knows, said Mr. Bounderby, now blowing a gale, that these are a set of rascals and rebels whom transportation is too good for. Now, Mr. Hart House, you have been knocking about the world some time. Did you ever meet with anything like that man out of this blessed country? And Mr. Bounderby pointed him out for inspection with an angry finger. Nay, ma'am, said Stephen Blackpool, staunchly protesting against the words that had been used, and instinctively addressing himself to Louisa after glancing at her face. Not of the kind, ma'am, not of the kind. They've not done me a kindness, ma'am, as I know and feel, but there are not a dozen men among them, ma'am, a dozen, not six, but what believes as he has done his duty by the rest and by himself. God forbid, as I, that he had known and had experienced so these men all my life, I that had a drunken weirman, toilin' weim, and lovin' him, and should fail for to stand by him with the truth, let him have done to me what they may. He spoke with the rugged earnestness of his place and character, deep and perhaps by a proud consciousness that he was faithful to his class under all their mistrust, but he fully remembered where he was and did not even raise his head. No, ma'am, no. They're true to one and other, faithful to one another, affectionate to one another, into death. Be poor among them, be sick among them, grieve among them, for only oh, the money causes that carries grief to a poor man's door and there'll be tender weir, gentle weir, comfortable weir, Christian weir, be sure of that, ma'am. They'd be riven to bits or ever they'd be different. In short, said Boundary, it's because they are so full of virtues that they have turned you adrift. Go through with it while you are about it out with it. Oh, tis, ma'am, resumes Stefan, appearing still to find his natural refuge in Louise's face, that what is best for seems to turn us most to trouble, unmasked fortune and mistake, I don't know. But tis so, I know tis, and I know as I know the heavens is over me, I hint the smoke. We're patient too, and once in general, to do right. And I kinda think the fault is all with us. Now my friend, said Boundary, whom he could not have exasperated more, quite unconscious of it, though he was, than by seeming to appeal to anyone else. If you will favor me with your attention for half a minute, I should like to have a word or two with you. You said just now that you had nothing to tell us about this business. You are quite sure of that before we go any further. Sir, I'm sure on't. Here's a gentleman from London present, Mr. Boundary made, a backhanded point at Mr. James Harthouse with his thumb. A parliament gentleman, I should like him to hear a short bit of dialogue between you and me, instead of taking the substance of it for I know precious well beforehand what it will be. Nobody knows better than I do, take notice, instead of receiving it on trust from my mouth. Mr. Boundary often bent his head to the gentleman from London and showed a rather more troubled mind than usual. He turned his eyes involuntarily to his former refuge, but at a look from that quarter expressive though instantaneous he settled them on Mr. Boundary's face. Now, what do you complain of? asked Mr. Boundary. I had not come here, sir, to complain I come for that I were sent for. What, repeated Mr. Boundary, folding his arms, do you people in general way complain of? Stefan looked at him with some little irresolution for a moment and then seemed to make up his mind. Sir, I were never good at showing ought, though I had my share of feeling ought. I was never in a muddle, sir. Look round town so rich as tis and see the numbers of people as have been brought in to be in here for to weave and to card and to peace out a living. All the same one way some house, twix their cradles and their graves. Look how we live and where we live and in what numbers and by what chances and we what and look how the mills is always a-going and how they never works us no nigh or to any distant object except in always death. Look how you considers of us and writes of us and talks of us and goes up we are deputations to secretaries of the state bout us and how you're always right and how we are all is wrong and never had no reason in us and were born. Look how this had growing and going, sir, bigger and bigger, broader and broader, harder and harder for year to year, from generation to generation. Who can look on it, sir, and fairly tell a man tis not a muddle. Of course, said Mr. Boundaby, now perhaps you'll let the gentleman know how you would set this muddle as you're right. I don't know, sir, I cannot be expecting to it. Tis not me as should be looking to for that, sir. Tis them as put over me and over all the rest of us. What do they take upon themselves, sir, if not to do it? I'll tell you something towards it at any rate, return Mr. Boundaby. We'll make an example of half bridges. We'll indict the blackheads for felony and get them shipped off to penal settlements. Stefan gravely shook his head. Don't tell me we won't man, said Mr. Boundaby by this time blowing a hurricane, because we will. I tell you. Sir, return Stefan with the quiet confidence of absolute certainty. If you was to take the two bridges, and as there is and all the number ten times so, and was to sow them in separate sacks and sink them in the deepest ocean as were made ever dry land come to be, you'd leave the muddle just where it is. Mischievous strangers, said Stefan with an anxious smile, when how we not here and I am sure we are. Mischievous strangers, it is not by them the troubles made, sir. It is not we them to commences. I had no favor for them. I had no reason to favor them, but is hopeless and useless to dream of taking them for their trade. Instead of taking their trade from them. Ah, that's about me in this room were here on. Put that clock aboard a ship and pack it off to Norfolk Island and the time will go on just the same. Sow to his way slack bridge every bit. Reverting for a moment to his former refuge, he observed a cautionary movement of her eyes towards the door. Stepping back, he put his hand upon the lock, but he had not spoken out of his own will and desire and he felt in his heart no more return for his late injurious treatment to be faithful to the last to those who had repudiated him. He stayed to finish what was in his mind. Sir, I can away my little learning and my common way tell the gentleman what will better all this, though some working men know this town could above my powers. But I can tell him what I know will never do it. The strong hand will never do it. Victory and triumph will never do it. Agree in her to make one side unnaturally always and forever right and to their side unnaturally always and forever wrong will never, never do it. Nor yet letting alone will never do it. Let thousands upon thousands alone all leading like lives and fawn into the like muddle and they will be as one and you will be as another we a black unpassable world betwixt just as long or short a time as such like misery can last. Not drawing nigh to folk with kindness and patience and cheery ways that so draws nigh one another in their money and so cherishes one and other in their distresses with what they need themself. Like I humbly believe as no people the gentleman has seen and all his travels can beat will never do it till the sun turns to ice. Most of all rating them as so much power and regulating them as if they was figures in a so more machines and loves and likens without memories and inclinations without souls to weary and souls to hope when all goes quiet dragging on William as if they are not of the kind and when all goes unquiet reproaching them for their want as such humanly feelings in their dealings with you this will never do it sir till God's work is unmade. Stefan stood with his hand door in his hand waiting to know if anything more were expected of him. Just stop a moment said Mr. Bounderby excessively read in the face I told you the last time you were here with a grievance that you had better turn about and come out of that and I also told you if you remember that I was up to the gold spoon lookout I were not up to I do assure you now it's clear to me said Mr. Bounderby that you are one of those chaps who have always got a grievance you go about sewing it and raising crops that's the business of your life my friend Stefan shook his head mutely protesting that indeed he had other business to do for his life you are such a waspish ill conditioned chap you see said Mr. Bounderby that even your own union the men who know you best will have nothing to do with you I never thought those fellows could be right in anything but I tell you what I so far go along with them for a novelty that I'll have nothing to do with you either Stefan raised his eyes quickly to his face you can finish off what you're at said Mr. Bounderby with a meaning nod and then go elsewhere sir you know wheels said Steven expressively that I kinda get work with you I kinda get it elsewhere the reply was what I know I know and what you know you know I have no more to say about it Stefan glanced at Luisa again but her eyes were raised to his no more therefore with a sigh and saying barely above his breath heaven help us all in this world he departed end of chapter 5 section 12 of hard times by Charles Dickens book 2 chapter 6 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org chapter 6 fading away it was falling dark when Stefan came out of Mr. Bounderby's house the shadows of night had gathered so fast that he did not look about him when he closed the door but plotted straight along the street nothing was farther from his thoughts than the curious old woman he had encountered on his previous visit to the same house when he heard a step behind him that he knew and turning saw her in Rachel's company he saw Rachel first as he had heard her only ah Rachel my dear Mrs. Thou Weir well and now you are surprised to be sure with reason I must say the old woman returned here I'm again you see but how were Rachel said Stefan falling into their step walking between them looking from one to the other why I come to be with this good last pretty much as I came to be with you said the old woman cheerfully taking the reply upon herself my visiting time is later this year than usual I've been rather troubled with a shortness of breath and so put it off till the weather was fine and warm for the same reason I don't make all my journey in one day but divided into two days and get a bed tonight at the traveller's coffee house down by the railroad a nice clean house and go back to Parliamentary at six in the morning well but what is this to do with this good last says you I'm going to tell you I have heard of Mr. Boundary being married I read it in the paper where it looked grand oh it looked fine the old woman dwelt on it with a strange enthusiasm and I want to see this wife I have never seen her yet now if you'll believe me she hasn't come out of that house since noon today so not to give her up too easily I was waiting about a little last bit more when I passed close to this good last two or three times and her face being so friendly I spoke to her and she spoke to me there said the old woman to Steffen you can make all the rest out for yourself now to deal shorter than I can I dare say once again Steffen had to conquer an instinctive propensity to dislike this old woman though her manner was as honest and simple as a manner possibly could be with a gentleness that was as natural to him as he knew it to be to Rachel he pursued the subject that interested her in her old age well Mrs. had he I have seen the lady and she were young and handsome we find dark thinking eyes and a still way Rachel as I had never seen the like on young and handsome yes cried the old woman quite delighted as Bonnie as a rose and what a happy wife I miss as I suppose she be since Steffen but with a doubtful glance at Rachel suppose she be she must be she's your master's wife returned the old woman Steffen not a descent though as to master said he glancing again at Rachel not master any more that's all ended and tooks him in me have you left his work Steffen as Rachel anxiously and quickly why Rachel he replied whether I have or left in his work or whether his work left in me comes to the same his work in me are parted well so better I were thinking when you come up with me I would have brought in trouble upon trouble if I had stayed there happily it is a kindness to money that I go happily it is a kindness to myself anyways it one be done it one turn my face through coke town for the time and seek a fortune dear by beginning fresh where will you go Steffen I don't know tonight said he left an office hat and smoothing his thin hair with the flat of his hand but I'm not going tonight Rachel nor yet tomorrow taint easy over much to know where I turn but a good heart will come to me herein to the sense of even thinking unselfishly aided him before he had so much as closed Mr. Boundary's door he had reflected that at least his being obliged to go away was good for her as it would save her from the chance of being brought into question for not withdrawing from him though it would cost him a hard pain to leave her and though he could think of no similar place in which his condemnation would not pursue him perhaps it was almost a relief to be forced away from the endurance of the last four days even to unknown difficulties and stresses so he said with truth I'm more lightsome Rachel under then than I could have believed it was not her part to make his burden heavier she answered with her comforting smile and the three walked on together age especially when it strives to be self-reliant and cheerful finds much consideration among the poor the old woman was so decent and contented and made so light of her infirmities though they had increased upon her since her former interview with Stefan that they both took an interest in her she was too sprightly to allow of their walking at a slow pace on her account but she was very grateful to be talked to and very willing to talk to any extent so when they came to their part of the town she was more brisk and vivacious than ever come to my poor place Mrs said Stefan and take a cup of tea Rachel will come then and afterwards I'll see these safe to thy travellers lodge and to may be long Rachel ere I had the chance of thy company again they complied and the three of them went on to the house where he lodged when they turned into a narrow street and glanced at his window with a dread that always haunted with his desolate home but it was open as he had left it and no one was there the evil spirit of his life had flitted away again months ago and he had heard no more of her since the only evidences of her return now were the scantier movables in his room and the greyer hair upon his head he lighted a candle and his little teaboard got hot water from below and brought in small portions of tea and sugar a loaf and some butter from the nearest shop the bread was new and crusty the butter fresh and the sugar lump of course in fulfillment of the standard testimony of the coke towns magnets that these people lived like princes sir Rachel made the tea so large a party necessitated the borrowing of a cup and the visitor enjoyed it mightily it was the first glimpse of sociality the host had had for many days he too with the world a wide heath before him enjoyed the meal again in cooperation of the magnets as exemplifying the utter want of calculation on the part of these people sir I had never thought yet mrs said stefan oh ask in thy name the old lady announced herself as mrs pegler a widow I think said stefan oh many long years mrs pegler's husband one of the best on the record was already dead by mrs pegler's calculation when stefan was born to her to bad job too to lose so good a one said stefan only children mrs pegler's cup rattling against her saucer she held it denoted some nervousness on her part no she said not now not now dead stefan rachel softly hinted oh I'm sorry I have spoken on said stefan I ought to had been in my mind as I might touch a sore place I I blame my son while he excused himself settled more and more I had a son she said curiously distressed and not by any of the usual appearances of sorrow and he did well wonderfully well but he is not to be spoken of if you please he is putting down her cup she moved her hands as if she would have added by her action dead then she said allowed I have lost him stefan had not yet got the better of his having given the old lady pain when his landlady came stumbling up the narrow stairs and calling him to the door whispered in his ear mrs pegley was by no means deaf for she caught a word of as it was uttered bounderby she cried in a suppressed voice starting up from the table oh hide me don't let me be seen for the world don't let him come up till I've got away pray pray she trembled and was excessively agitated getting behind Rachel when Rachel tried to reassure her and not seeming to know what she was about but harken mrs harken said stefan astonished tisn't mr bounderby tis his wife you're for fear of or her you was hey go mad about her but an hour sin but are you sure it's the lady not the gentleman she asked still trembling certain sure well then pray don't speak to me nor yet take any notice of me said the old woman let me be quite to myself in this corner stefan nodded looking to Rachel for an explanation which she was quite unable to give him took the cattle went downstairs in a few moments return to the room she was followed by the Rachel had risen and stood apart with her shawl and bonnet in her hand when stefan himself profoundly astonished by this visit put the candle on the table then he too stood with his doubled hand upon the table near it waiting to be addressed for the first time in her life had come into one of the dwellings of the coke town hands for the first time in her life she was face to face with anything like individuality and connection with them she knew of their existence by hundreds and by thousands she knew what results and work a given number of them would produce in a given space of time she knew them in crowds passing to and from their nests like ants or beetles but she knew her reading infinitely more of the ways of toiling insects than of these toiling men and women something to be worked so much and paid so much and there ended something to be infallibly settled by laws of supply and demand something that blundered against those laws and floundered into difficulty something that was a little pinched when wheat was dear and over ate itself and wheat was cheap something that increased at such a rate of percentage and yielded such another percentage of crime and such another percentage of pauperism something wholesale of which vast fortunes were made something that occasionally rose like a sea and did some harm and waste chiefly to itself again this she knew the coke town hands to be but she had scarcely thought more of separating them into units than of separating the sea itself into component drops she stood for a moment looking round the room from the few chairs the few books the common prints the bed she glanced to the two women and to Stefan I have come to speak to you in consequence of what past just now I should like to be serviceable to you if you will let me is this your wife Rachel raised her eyes and they sufficiently answered no and dropped again I remember said Louisa reddening at her mistake I recollect now to have heard your domestic misfortune spoken of though I was not attending to the particulars at the time it was not my meaning to ask a question that would give pain to anyone here if I should ask any other question that may happen to have that result give me credit if you please for being in ignorance how to speak to you as I ought as Stefan had but a little while ago instinctively addressed himself to her so she now instinctively addressed herself Rachel her manner was short and abrupt yet faltering and timid he has told you at what has passed between himself and my husband you would be his first resource I think I have heard the end of it young lady said Rachel did I understand that being rejected by one employer he would probably be rejected by all I thought he said as much the chances are very small young lady next to nothing for a man who gets a bad name among them what shall I understand that you mean by a bad name the name of being troublesome then by prejudices of his own class and by the prejudices of the other he has sacrificed a like are the two so deeply separated in this town that there is no place whatever for an honest workman between them Rachel shook her head in silence he fell into suspicion said Louisa with his fellow weavers because he had made a promise not to be one of them I think it must have been to you that he made that promise might I ask why he made it Rachel burst into tears I didn't seek it of him poor lad I prayed him to avoid trouble for his own good little thinking he'd come to it through me but I know he'd die a hundred deaths or he'd break his word I know that of him well Stefan had remained quietly attentive in his usual thoughtful attitude with his hand at his chin he now spoken a voice rather less steady than usual no one except in my cell can ever know what honor and what love and respect I bear to Rachel are we what cause when I passed that promise I told her true she were the angel of my life to a solemn promise to has gone from me forever Louisa turned her head to him and bent it with a deference that was new in her she looked from him to Rachel and her features softened what will you do she asked him and her voice had softened too we'll mom said Stefan making the best of it with a smile when I have finished off I'm on quit this part and try another of Fortinet or Miss Fortinet a man can but try there's not to be done without trying set lying down and dying how will you travel a foot my kind lady a foot Louisa colored and a purse appeared in her hand the rustling of a bank note was audible as she unfolded and laid it on the table Rachel will you tell him for you know how without offense that this is freely his to help him on his way will you entreat him to take it I cannot do that young lady she answered turning her head aside I wish you for thinking of the poor lad with such tenderness but his for him to know his heart and what is right according to it Louisa looked in part incredulous in part frightened in part overcome with quick sympathy when this man of so much self command who had been so plain and steady through the late interview lost his composure in a moment and now stood with his hand face she stretched out hers as if she would have touched him then checked herself and remained still no even Rachel said Steven when he stood again with his face uncovered could make such a kind offering by only words kinder to show that I'm not a man without reason and gratitude I'll take two pound I'll borrow it for to pay to back to be the sweetest work as ever I had done that puts it in my power to acknowledge once more my last unthankfulness for this present action she was feigned to take up the note again and to substitute the much smaller some he had named he was neither courtly nor handsome nor picture-esque in any respect and yet his manner of accepting it and of expressing his thanks without more words had a grace in it that Lord Chester could not have taught his son in a century Tom had sat upon the bed swinging one leg and sucking his walking stick with sufficient unconcern until the visit had attained this stage seeing his sister ready to depart he got up rather hurriedly and put in a word just wait a moment Lou before we go I should like to speak to him a moment something comes into my head if you'll step out on the stairs black pool I'll mention it in never mind a light man Tom was remarkably impatient of his moving towards the cupboard to get one I don't want a light Stefan followed him out and Tom closed the room door and held the lock in his hand I say he whispered I think I can do you a good turn don't ask me what it is because it may not come to anything no harm in my trying his breath fell like a flame of fire on Stefan's ear it was so hot that was our light porter at the bank said Tom who brought to the message tonight I called him our light porter because I belong to the bank too Stefan thought what a hurry he's in he spoke so confusedly well said Tom now look here when are you off today's Monday replied Stefan considering why serve Friday or Saturday now about Friday or Saturday said Tom now look here I'm not sure that I can do you the good turn I want to do you that's my sister you know in your room but I may be able to and if I should not be able to there's no harm done so I'll tell you what you are light porter again yes sure said Stefan very well returned Tom when you leave work of a night between this and you're going away just hang about the bank an hour or so will you don't take on as if you meant anything if he should see you hanging about there because I shan't put him up to speak to you unless I find I can do you the service I want to do you in that case he'll have a note or a message for you but not to else now look here you're sure you understand he had wormed a finger in the darkness through a buttonhole of Stevens coat and was screwing that corner of the garment tight up round and round in an extraordinary manner I understand sir said Stefan now look here repeated Tom be sure you don't make any mistake then and don't forget I shall tell my sisters we go home what I have in view and she'll approve I know now look here you're all right are you you understand all about it very well then come along Lou he pushed the door open as he called to her but did not return into the room or wait to be lighted down the narrow stairs he was at the bottom when she began to descend and was in the street before she could take his arm Mrs. Pegler remained in her corner until the brother and sister were gone until Stefan came back with a candle in his hand she was in a state of inexpressible admiration of Mrs. Boundary and like an unaccountable old woman wept because she was such a pretty dear yet Mrs. Pegler was so flurry lest the object of her admiration should return by chance or anybody else should come that her cheerfulness was ended for that night it was late too to people and she rose early and worked hard therefore the party broke up and Stefan and Rachel escorted their mysterious acquaintance to the door of the traveller's coffee house where they parted from her they walked back together to the corner of the street where Rachel lived and as they drew nearer and nearer to it silence crept upon them when they came to the dark corner where their unfrequent meetings always ended they stopped still silent as if both were afraid to speak I shall strive to see the again Rachel before I go but if not that will not Stefan I know tis better we make up our minds to be open we one another without always right tis bolder and better I have been thinking then Rachel that tis but a day or two that remains for better for thee dear not to be seen with me to might bring thee into trouble for no good tis not for that Stefan that I mind but thou knowest our old agreement tis for that well well said he tis better anyways thou right to me and tell me all that happened Stefan yes what can I say now but heaven be we ye heaven bless thee heaven thank thee and reward thee may it bless thee Stefan too in all thy wanderings and send thee peace and rest at last I told thee my dears and Stefan Blackpool that night that I would never see or think only thing that angered me but thou so much better than me shouldst be beside it thou art beside it now thou makest me see it we better I bless thee good night goodbye it was but a hurried parting in a common street yet it was sacred remembrance to these two common people utilitarian economists skeletons of school masters commissioners of fact gentile and used up infidels grabbers of many little dogs eared creeds the poor you have always with you cultivated them where there is yet time the utmost graces of fancies and affections to adorn their life so much need of ornament or in the day of your triumph when romances utterly driven out of their souls and they and a bare stand face to face reality will take a wolfish turn and make an end of you Stefan worked next day and the next un-cheered by a word from anyone and shunned in all his comings and goings as before at the end of the second day he saw land at the end of the third his loom stood empty he had overstayed his hour and the bank on each of the two first evenings and nothing had happened there good or bad that he might not be remiss in his part of the engagement he resolved to wait full two hours on his third and last night there was the lady who had once kept Mr. Boundary's house sitting at the first floor window as he had seen her before and there was the light porter sometimes talking with her there sometimes looking over the blind below which had bank upon it and sometimes coming to the door and standing on the steps for a breath of air when he first came out Stefan thought he might be looking for him and passed near but the light porter only cast his winking eyes upon him slightly and said nothing two hours were a long stretch of lounging about after a long day's labor Stefan sat upon the step of a door leaned against the wall under an archway strolled up and down listened for the church clock stopped and watched children playing in the street some purpose or other is so natural to everyone that a mere loiterer always looks and feels remarkable when the first hour was out Stefan even began to have an uncomfortable sensation upon him of being for the time a disreputable character then came the lamp lighter and two lengthening lines of light all down the long perspective of the street until they were blended and lost in the distance Mrs. Sparsit closed the first floor window drew down the blind and went upstairs presently a light went upstairs after her passing first the fan light of the door and afterwards the two staircase windows on its way up by and by one corner of the second floor blind was disturbed as if Mrs. Sparsit's eye were there also the other corner as if the light porter's eye were on that side still no communication was made to Stefan much relieved when the two hours were at last accomplished he went away at a quick pace as to recompense so much loitering he had only to take leave of his landlady and lie down on the temporary bed upon the floor for his bundle was made up for tomorrow and all was arranged for his departure he meant to be clear of the town very early before the hands were in the streets it was barely daybreak when with a parting look round his room mournfully wondering whether he should ever see it again the town was entirely deserted as if the inhabitants had abandoned it rather than hold communication with him everything looked wan at that hour even the coming sun made but a pale waist in the sky like a sad sea by the place where Rachel lived thought was not in his way by the red brick streets by the great silent factories not trembling yet by the railway where the danger lights were waning in the strengthening day by the railways crazy neighborhood half pulled down and half built up by scattered red brick villas where the besmoked evergreens were sprinkled with a dirty powder like untowdy snuff takers by cold dust paths and many varieties of ugliness Stefan got to the top of the hill and looked back day was shining radiantly upon the town then and the bells were going for the morning work domestic fires were not yet lighted and the high chimneys had the sky to themselves puffing out their poisonous volumes they would not be long in hiding it but for half an hour some of the many windows were golden which showed the coke town people a sun eternally in eclipse through a medium of smoked glass so strange to turn from the chimneys to the birds so strange to have the road dust on his feet instead of the cold grit so strange to have lived to this time of life and yet to be beginning like a boy this summer morning with these musings in his mind and his bundle under his arm Stefan took his attentive face along the high road and the trees arched over him whispering that he left a true and loving heart behind End of Chapter 6 Section 13 of Hard Times This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain If you have more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Deborah Lynn Hard Times by Charles Dickens Chapter 7 Gunpowder Mr. James Harthouse going in for his adopted party soon began to score with the aid of a little more coaching for the political sages a little more genteel listlessness in the general society and a tolerable management of the assumed honesty in dishonesty most effective and most patronized of the polite deadly sins he speedily came to be considered of much promise The not being troubled with earnestness was a grand point in his favor enabling him to take to the hard fact fellows with as good a grace as if he had been born one of the tribe of other tribes overboard as conscious hypocrites whom none of us believe my dear Mrs. Bounderby and who do not believe themselves the only difference between us and the professors of virtue or benevolence or philanthropy never mind the name is that we know it is all meaningless and say so while they know it equally and will never say so Why should she be shocked by her father's principles and her early training that it need startle her where was the great difference between the two schools when each chained her down to material realities and inspired her with no faith in anything else what was there in her soul for James Hart House to destroy which Thomas Gradgrind had nurtured there in its state of innocence it was even the worst when her permanently practical father began to form it a struggling disposition to believe in a wider and nobler humanity than she had ever heard of constantly strove with doubts and resentments with doubts because the aspiration had been so laid waste in her youth with resentments because of the wrong that had been done her if it were indeed a whisper of the truth upon a nature long accustomed to self suppression when she was guided the Hart House philosophy came as a relief and justification everything being hollow and worthless she had missed nothing and sacrificed nothing what did it matter she had said to her father when he proposed her husband what did it matter she said still with a scornful self reliance she asked herself step by step onward and downward towards some end yet so gradually that she believed herself to remain motionless as to Mr. Hart House with her he tended he neither considered nor cared he had no particular design or plan before him no energetic wickedness ruffled his lassitude he was as much amused and interested at present as it became so fine a gentleman to be perhaps even more than it would have been consistent with his reputation to confess soon after his arrival he languidly wrote to his brother the honorable and jocular member that the Boundary Bees were great fun and further that the female Boundary Bees instead of being the Gorgon he had expected was young and remarkably pretty after that he wrote no more about them and devoted his leisure chiefly to their house he was very often in their house and visited about the Cope Town District and was much encouraged by Mr. Boundary Bees it was quite in Mr. Boundary Bees gusty way to boast to all his world that he didn't care about your highly connected people but that if his wife Tom Grangren's daughter did she was welcomed to their company Mr. James Hart House began to think it would be a new sensation if the face which changed so beautifully for the Welp changed for him he was quick enough to observe he had a good memory and did not forget a word of the brothers' revelations he interwoven them with everything he saw of the sister and he began to understand her to be sure the better and profounder part of her character was not within his scope of perception for in natures as in seas depth answers unto depth but he soon began to read the rest with a student's eye Mr. Boundary Bees had taken possession of a house and grounds about fifteen miles from the town and accessible within a mile or two by a railway striding on many arches over a wild country undermined by deserted coal shafts and spotted at night by fires and black shapes of stationary engines at Pitt's mouth this country gradually softening towards the neighborhood of Mr. Boundary Bees' retreat they were mellowed into a rustic landscape golden with heath and snowy with hawthorne in the spring of the year and tremulous with leaves and their shadows all the summertime the bank had foreclosed a mortgage affected on the property thus pleasantly situated by one of the coke town magnates who in his determination to make a shorter cut than usual to an enormous fortune over speculated himself by about two hundred thousand pounds these accidents did sometimes happen in the best regulated families of coke town but the bankrupts had no connection whatever with the improvident classes it afforded Mr. Boundary supreme satisfaction to install himself in this snug little estate and with demonstrative humility to grow cabbages in the flower garden he delighted to live barric fashion among the elegant furniture that bullied the very pictures with his origin why sir he would say to a visitor I am told that Nicketts the late owner gave seven hundred pound for that sea beach now to be playing with you if I ever in the whole course of my life take seven looks at it at a hundred pound a look it will be as much as I shall do no by George I don't forget that I am Josiah Boundary of coke town for years upon years the only pictures I got into my possession by any means unless I stole them were the engravings of a man shaving himself in a boot on the blacking bottles that I was overjoyed to use in cleaning boots with and that I sold when they were empty for a farthing apiece and glad to get it then he would address Mr. Harthaus in the same style Harthaus you have a couple of horses down here bring half a dozen more if you like and we'll find room for them there's a place for a dozen horses and unless Nicketts is belied he kept the full number a round dozen of them sir when that man was a boy he went to Westminster school went to Westminster school as a king scholar when I was principally living on garbage and sleeping in market baskets wife I wanted to keep a dozen horses which I don't for one's enough for me I couldn't bear to see them in their stalls here and think what my own lodging used to be I couldn't look at them sir and not order them out yet so things come round you see this place you know what sort of a place it is you are aware that there's not a complete a place of its size in this kingdom or elsewhere I don't care where and here got into the middle of it like a maggot into a nut is Josiah Bounderby while Nicketts as a man came into my office and told me yesterday Nicketts who used to act in Latin Westminster school plays with the chief justices and nobility of this country applauding him till they were black in the face is driveling at this minute driveling sir in a fifth floor up a narrow dark back street in Antwerp it was among the leafy shadows of this retirement in the long sultry summer days that Mr. Harthouse began to prove the face which had set him wondering when he first saw it if it would change for him Mrs. Bounderby I esteem it a most fortunate accident that I find you alone here I have for some time had a particular wish to speak to you it was not by any wonderful accident that he found her the time of day being that at which she was always alone and the place being her favorite resort it was an opening in a dark wood where some felled trees lay and where she would sit watching the fallen leaves of last year as she had watched the falling ashes at home he sat down beside her with a glance at her face your brother, my young friend Tom her color brightened and she turned to him with a look of interest I never in my life he thought saw anything so remarkable and so captivating as the lighting of those features his face betrayed his thoughts perhaps without betraying him for it might have been according to its instructions to do so pardon me the expression of your sisterly interest is so beautiful Tom should be so proud of it I know this is inexcusable but I am so compelled to admire being so impulsive she said composedly Mrs. Bounderby, no you know I make no pretense with you you know I am a sordid piece of human nature ready to sell myself at any time for any reasonable sum put together incapable of any Arcadian proceeding whatever I am waiting she returned for your further reference to my brother you are rigid with me and I deserve it I am as worthless a dog as you will find except that I am not false not false but you surprised and started me from my subject which was your brother I have an interest in him have you an interest in anything Mr. Hart House half incredulously and half gratefully if you had asked me when I first came here I should have said no I must say now even at the hazard of appearing to make a pretense and of justly awakening your incredulity yes she made a slight movement as if she were trying to speak but could not find voice at length she said Mr. Hart House I give you credit for being interested in my brother you I claim to deserve it you know how little I do claim but I will go that length you have done so much for him you are so fond of him your whole life Mrs. Boundary expresses such charming self-forgetfulness on his account pardon me again I am running wide of the subject I am interested in him for his own sake she had made the slightest action possible as if she would have risen in a hurry and gone away in the course of what he said at that instant and she remained Mrs. Boundary he resumed in a lighter manner and yet with a show of effort in assuming it which was even more expressive than the manner he dismissed it is no irrevocable offense in a young fellow of your brother's years if he is heedless, inconsiderate and expensive a little dissipated in the common phrase is he yes allow me to be frank do you think he games at all I think he makes bets Mr. Hart House waiting as if that were not her whole answer she added I know he does of course he loses yes everybody does lose who bets may I hint at the probability of your sometimes supplying him with money for these purposes she sat looking down but at this question raised her eyes searchingly and a little resentfully acquit me of impertinent curiosity my dear Mrs. Boundary I think Tom may be gradually falling into trouble and I wish to stretch out a helping hand to him from the depths of my wicked experience shall I say again for his sake is that necessary she seemed to try to answer but nothing came of it candidly to confess everything that has occurred to me said James Hart House colliding with the same appearance of effort into his more airy manner I will confide to you my doubt whether he has had many advantages whether forgive my plainness whether any great amount of confidence is likely to have been established between himself and his most worthy father I do not said Louisa flushing with her own great remembrance and that wise think it likely or between himself and I may trust you a perfect understanding of my meaning I am sure and just highly esteemed brother in law she flushed deeper and deeper and was burning red when she replied in a fainter voice I do not think that likely either Mrs. Boundary said Hart House after a short silence may there be a better confidence between yourself and me Tom has borrowed a considerable sum of you you will understand Mr. Hart House she returned after some indecision she had been more or less uncertain and troubled throughout the conversation and yet had in the main preserved yourself contained manner you will understand that if I tell you what you press to know it is not by way of complaint or regret I would never complain of anything and what I have done I do not in the least regret so spirited too thought James Hart House when I married I found that my brother was even at that time heavily in debt heavily for him I mean heavily enough to oblige me to sell some trinkets they were no sacrifice I sold them very willingly I attached no value to them they were quite worthless to me either she saw in his face that he knew or she only feared in her conscience that he knew that she spoke of some of her husband's gifts she stopped and read again if he had not known it before he would have known it then though he had been a much duller man than he was since then I have given my brother at various times what money I could spare in short what money I have had confiding in you at all on the faith of the interest you profess for him I will not do so by halves since you have been in the habit of visiting here he has wanted in one sum as much as a hundred pounds I have not been able to give it to him I have felt uneasy for the consequences of his being so involved but I have kept these secrets until now when I trust them to your honor I have held no confidence with anyone because you anticipated my reason just now she abruptly broke off he was a ready man and he saw and seized an opportunity here of presenting her own image to her slightly disguised as her brother Mrs. Boundary though a graceless person of the world-worldly I feel the utmost interest I assure you in what you tell me I cannot possibly be hard upon your brother I understand and share the wise consideration with which you regard his errors with all possible respect both for Mr. Gradgrind and for Mr. Boundary I think I perceive that he has not benefited in his training bred at a disadvantage towards the society in which he has his part to play he rushes into these extremes for himself from opposite extremes that have long been forced with the very best intentions we have no doubt upon him Mr. Boundary's fine bluff English independence though a most charming characteristic does not as we have agreed invite confidence if I might venture to remark that it is the least in the world deficient in that delicacy to which a youth mistaken a character misconceived and abilities misdirected would turn for relief and guidance I should express what it presents to my own view as she sat looking straight before her across the changing lights upon the grass into the darkness of the wood beyond he saw in her face her application of his very distinctly uttered words all allowance he continued must be made I have one great fault to find with Tom however which I cannot forgive and for which I take him heavily to account Louisa turned her eyes to his face and asked him what fault was that perhaps he returned I have said enough perhaps it would have been better on the whole if no illusion to it had escaped me you alarm me Mr. Hart House pray let me know it to relieve you from needless apprehension and as this confidence regarding your brother which I prize I am sure above all possible things has been established between us I obey I cannot forgive him for not being more sensible in every word look and act of his life of the affection of his best friend of the devotion of his best friend of her unselfishness of her sacrifice the return he makes her within reservation is a very poor one what she has done for him demands his constant love and gratitude not his ill humor and caprice careless fellow as I am I am not so indifferent Mrs. Boundary as to be regardless of this vice in your brother or inclined to consider it a venial offense the wood floated before her for her eyes were suffused with tears they rose from a deep well long concealed and her heart was the cute pain that found no relief in them in a word it is to correct your brother in this Mrs. Boundary that I must aspire my better knowledge of his circumstances in my direction and advice in extricating them rather valuable I hope is coming from escape grace on a much larger scale will give me some influence over him and all I gain I shall certainly use towards this end I have said enough and more than enough I seem to be protesting that I am a sort of good fellow when upon my honor I have not the least intention to make any protestation to that effect and openly announce that I am nothing of the sort yonder among the trees he added having lifted up his eyes and looked about for he had watched her closely until now is your brother himself no doubt just come down as he seems to be loitering in this direction it may be as well perhaps to walk towards him and throw ourselves in his way he has been very silent and doleful of late perhaps his brotherly conscience has touched if there are such things as consciences though upon my honor I hear of them much too often to believe in them he assisted her to rise and she took his arm and they advanced to meet the welp he was idly beating the branches as he lounged along or he walked viciously to rip the moss from the trees with his stick he was startled when they came upon him while he was engaged in this latter past time and his color changed hello he stammered I didn't know you were here whose name Tom said Mr. Hart House putting his hand upon his shoulder and turning him so that they all three walked towards the house together have you been carving on the trees whose name I turned Tom oh you mean what girls name you have a suspicious appearance of inscribing some fair creatures on the bark Tom not much of that Mr. Hart House unless some fair creature with a slashing fortune at her own disposal would take a fancy to me or she might be as ugly as she was rich without any fear of losing me I'd cover name as often as she liked I am afraid you are mercenary Tom mercenary repeated Tom who was not mercenary asked my sister have you so proved it to be a failing of mine Tom said Louisa showing no other sense of his discontent and ill nature you know whether the cat fits you Lou returned her brother sulkly if it does you can wear it Tom is misanthropical today as all bored people are now and then said Mr. Hart House don't believe him Mrs. Bounderby he knows better I shall disclose some of his opinions of you privately expressed to me unless he relents a little at all events Mr. Hart House said Tom softening in his admiration of his patron but shaking his head sullenly to you can't tell her that I ever praised her for being mercenary I may have praised her for being the contrary and I should do it again if I had as good reason however never mind this now it's interesting to you and I am sick of the subject they walked on to the house where Louisa quitted her visitor's arm and went in he stood looking after her as she ascended the steps and passed into the shadow of the door then put his hand upon her brother's shoulder again and invited him with a confidential nod to a walk in the garden Tom my fine fellow I want to have a word with you they had stopped among a disorder of roses it was part of Mr. Boundary's humility to keep Nicketts' roses on a reduced scale and Tom sat down on a terrace parapet plucking buds and picking them to pieces while his powerful familiar stood over him with a foot upon the parapet and his figure easily resting on the arm supported by that knee they were just visible from her window perhaps she saw them Tom what's the matter hello Mr. Hart House said Tom with a groan I am hard up and bothered out of my life my good fellow so am I you return Tom you are the picture of independence Mr. Hart House I am in a horrible mess you have no idea what a state I have got myself into what a state my sister might have got me out of if she would only have done it he took to biting the rose buds now and tearing them away from his teeth resembled like an infirm old man's after one exceedingly observant look at him his companion relapsed into his lightest air Tom you are inconsiderate you expect too much of your sister you have had money of her you dog you know you have well Mr. Hart House I know I have how else was I to get it here's old Boundary be always boasting that at my age he lived upon top it's a month or something of that sort my father drawing what he calls a line and tying me down to it from a baby neck and heels here's my mother who never has anything of her own except her complaints what is a fellow to do for money and where am I to look for it if not to my sister he was almost crying and scattered the buds about by dozens Mr. Hart House took him persuasively by the coat but my dear Tom if your sister has not got it not got it Mr. Hart House I don't say she has got it I may have wanted more than she was likely to have got but then she ought to get it she could get it it's of no use pretending to make a secret of matters now after what I have told you already you know she didn't marry old Boundary be for her own sake or for his sake but for my sake then why doesn't she get what I want out of him for my sake she is not obliged to say what she is going to do with it she is sharp enough she could manage to coax it out of him if she chose then why doesn't she choose when I tell her of what consequence it is but no there she sits in his company like a stone instead of making herself agreeable and getting it easily I don't know what you may call this but I call it unnatural conduct there was a piece of ornamental water immediately below the parapet on the other side into which Mr. James Hart House had a very strong inclination to pitch Mr. Thomas Grad Grind Jr. as the injured men of Coke Town threatened to pitch their property into the Atlantic but he preserved his easy attitude and nothing more solid went over the stone balustrades than the accumulated rose buds now floating about a little surface island my dear Tom said Hart House let me try to be your banker for God's sake replied Tom suddenly don't talk about bankers and very white he looked in contrast with the roses very white Mr. Hart House as a thoroughly well-bred man accustomed to the best society was not to be surprised he could as soon have been affected but he raised his eyelids a little more as if they were lifted by a feeble touch of wonder albeit it was as much against the precepts of his school to against the doctrines of the Grad Grind College what is the present need Tom three figures out with them say what they are Mr. Hart House returned Tom now actually crying and his tears were better than his injuries however pitiful a figure he made it's too late the money is of no use to me at present I should have had it before to be of use to me but I am very much obliged to you a true friend Welp Welp thought Mr. Hart House lazily what an ass you are and I take your offer as a great kindness said Tom grasping his hand as a great kindness Mr. Hart House well return to the other it may be of more use by and by and my good fellow if you will open your bedevilments to me when they come thick upon you I may show you better ways out of them than you can find for yourself thank you said Tom shaking his head dismal and chewing rose buds wish I had known you sooner Mr. Hart House now you see Tom said Mr. Hart House in conclusion himself tossing over a rose or two as a contribution to the island which was always drifting to the wall as if it wanted to become a part of the mainland every man is selfish in everything he does and I am exactly like the rest of my fellow creatures I am desperately intent the langer of his desperation being quite tropical on your softening towards your sister which you ought to do and on your being a more loving and agreeable sort of brother which you ought to be I will be Mr. Hart House no time like the present Tom begin at once certainly I will and my sister Lu shall say so having made which bargain Tom Mr. Hart House clapping him on the shoulder again with an air which left him at liberty to infer as he did poor fool that this condition was imposed upon him in mere careless good nature to lessen his sense of obligation we will tear ourselves asunder until dinner time when Tom appeared before dinner though his mind seemed heavy enough his body was on the alert and he appeared before Mr. Bounder became in becross Lu he said giving her his hand and kissing her I know you are fond of me and you know I am fond of you after this there was a smile upon Louise's face that day for someone else alas for someone else so much the less is the welp the only creature that she cares for thought James Hart House reversing the reflection of his first day's knowledge of her pretty face so much the less end of section 13 recording by Debra Lynn Northern Lower Michigan February 2007