two persons, however, had a suspicion of the truth. one of these was the porter of the bank, whose suspicion was strong. the other was louisa, who, though her love denied it room, hid in her secret heart a fear that her brother had had a share in the crime. in the night she went to tom's bedside, put her arms around him and begged him to tell her any secret he might be keeping from her. but he answered sullenly that he did not know what she meant.
mrs. sparsit's fine-bred nerves (so she insisted) were so shaken by the robbery that she came to bounderby's house to remain till she recovered.
the feeble, pink-eyed bundle of shawls that was mrs. gradgrind, happening to die at this time, and louisa being absent at her mother's funeral, mrs.[pg 428] sparsit saw her opportunity. she had never forgiven louisa for marrying bounderby, and she now revenged herself by a course of such flattery that the vulgar bully began to think his cold, proud wife much too regardless of him and of his importance.
what pleased the hawk-faced old busybody most was the game the suave harthouse was playing, which she was sharp enough to see through at once. if louisa would only disgrace herself by running away with harthouse, thought mrs. sparsit, bounderby might be free again and she might marry him. so she watched narrowly the growing intimacy between them, hoping for louisa's ruin.
there came a day when bounderby was summoned on business to london, and louisa stayed meanwhile at the bounderby country house, which lay some distance from coketown. mrs. sparsit guessed that harthouse would use this chance to see louisa alone, and, to spy upon her, took the train herself, reaching there at nightfall.
she went afoot from the station to the grounds, opened the gate softly and crept close to the house. here and there in the dusk, through garden and wood, she stole, and at length she found what she sought. there under the trees stood harthouse, his horse tied near by, and talking with him was louisa.
mrs. sparsit stood behind a tree, like robinson crusoe in his ambuscade against the savages, and[pg 429] listened with all her ears. she could not hear all, but caught enough to know that he was telling her he loved her, and begging her to leave her husband, her home and friends, and to run away with him.
in her delight and in the noise of rain upon the foliage (for a thunder-storm was rolling up) mrs. sparsit did not catch louisa's answer. where and when harthouse asked her to join him, she could not hear, but as he mounted and rode away she thought he said "to-night."
she waited in the rain, rejoicing, till her patience was at length rewarded by seeing louisa, cloaked and veiled as if for a journey, come from the house and go toward the railroad station. then mrs. sparsit, drawing her draggled shawl over her head to hide her face, followed, boarded the same train, and hastened to tell the news of his wife's elopement to bounderby in london.
wet to the skin, her feet squashing in her shoes, her clothes spoiled and her bonnet looking like an over-ripe fig, with a terrible cold that made her voice only a whisper, and sneezing herself almost to pieces, mrs. sparsit found bounderby at his city hotel, exploded with the combustible information she carried and fainted quite away on his coat collar.
furious at the news she brought, bounderby hustled her into a fast train, and together, he raging and glaring and she inwardly jubilant, they hurried[pg 430] toward coketown to inform mr. gradgrind, who was then at home, of his daughter's doings.
but where, meanwhile, was louisa? not run away with harthouse, as mrs. sparsit so fondly imagined, but safe in her own father's house in coketown.
she had suffered much without complaint, but harthouse's proposal had been the last straw. added to all the insults she had suffered at her husband's hands, and her fearful suspicion of tom's guilt, it had proven too much for her to bear. she had pretended to agree to harthouse's plan only that she might the more quickly rid herself of his presence.
mr. gradgrind, astonished at her sudden arrival at stone lodge, was shocked no less at her ghastly appearance than by what she said. she told him she cursed the hour when she had been born to grow up a victim to his teachings; that her whole life had been empty; that every hope, affection and fancy had been crushed from her very infancy and her better angel made a demon. she told him the whole truth about her marriage to bounderby—that she had married him solely for the advancement of tom, the only one she had ever loved—and that now she could no longer live with her husband or bear the life she had made for herself.
and when she had said this, louisa, the daughter his "system" had brought to such despair, fell at his feet.[pg 431]
at her pitiful tale the tender heart that mr. gradgrind had buried in his long-past youth under his mountain of facts stirred again and began to beat. the mountain crumbled away, and he saw in an instant, as by a lightning flash, that the plan of life to which he had so rigidly held was a complete and hideous failure. he had thought there was but one wisdom, that of the head; he knew at last that there was a deeper wisdom of the heart also, which all these years he had denied!
when she came to herself, louisa found her father sitting by her bedside. his face looked worn and older. he told her he realized at last his life mistake and bitterly reproached himself. sissy, too, was there, her love shining like a beautiful light on the other's darkness. she knelt beside the bed and laid the weary head on her breast, and then for the first time louisa burst into sobs.
next day sissy sought out harthouse, who was waiting, full of sulky impatience at the failure of louisa to appear as he had expected. sissy told him plainly what had occurred, and that he should never see louisa again. harthouse, realizing that his plan had failed, suddenly discovered that he had a great liking for camels, and left the same hour for egypt, never to return to coketown.
it was while sissy was absent on this errand of her own that the furious bounderby and the triumphant mrs. sparsit, the latter voiceless and still sneezing, appeared at stone lodge.[pg 432]
mr. gradgrind took the mill owner greatly aback with the statement that louisa had had no intention whatever of eloping and was then in that same house and under his care. angry and blustering at being made such a fool of, bounderby turned on mrs. sparsit, but in her disappointment at finding it a mistake, she had dissolved in tears. when mr. gradgrind told him he had concluded it would be better for louisa to remain for some time there with him, bounderby flew into a still greater rage and stamped off, swearing his wife should come home by noon next day or not at all.
to be sure louisa did not go, and next day bounderby sent her clothes to mr. gradgrind, advertised his country house for sale, and, needing something to take his spite out upon, redoubled his efforts to find the robber of the bank.
and he began by covering the town with printed placards, offering a large regard for the arrest of stephen blackpool.
