more. He caught them in his unoccupied
hand, and holding them, and still clasping
the border of her shawl, said, hurriedly:

"But I see thee, Rachael, setten by the
bed. I ha' seen thee a' this night. In my
troublous sleep I ha' known thee still to be
there. Evermore I will see thee there. I
nevermore will see her or think o' her, but
thou shall be beside her. I nevermore will
see or think o' anything that angers me, but
thou, so much better than me, shalt be by th'
side on't. And so I will try t' look t' th'
time, and so I will try t' trust t' th' time,
when thou and me at last shall walk together
far awa', beyond the deep gulf, in th' country
where thy little sister is."

He kissed the border of her shawl again,
and let her go. She bade him good night in
a broken voice, and went out into the street.

The wind blew from the quarter where the
day would soon appear, and still blew
strongly. It had cleared the sky before it,
and the rain had spent itself or travelled
elsewhere, and the stars were bright. He
stood bare-headed in the road, watching her
quick disappearance. As the shining stars
were to the heavy candle in the window, so
was Rachael, in the rugged fancy of this man,
to the common experiences of his life.

CHAPTEE XIV.

TIME went on in Coketown like its own
machinery: so much material wrought up,
so much fuel consumed, so many powers worn
out, so much money made. But, less inexorable
than iron, steel, and brass, it brought its
varying seasons even into that wilderness
of smoke and brick, and made the only stand
that ever was made in the place against its
direful uniformity.

"Louisa is becoming," said Mr. Gradgrind,
"almost a young woman."

Time, with his innumerable horse-power,
worked away, not minding what anybody
said, and presently turned out young Thomas
a foot taller than when his father had last
taken particular notice of him.

"Thomas is becoming," said Mr. Gradgrind,
' almost a young man."

Time passed Thomas on in the mill, while
his father was thinking about it, and there
he stood in a long tail-coat and a stiff shirt-
collar.

"Really," said Mr. Gradgrind, " the period
has arrived when Thomas ought to go to
Bounderby."

Time, sticking to him, passed him on into
Bounderby's Bank, made him an inmate of
Bounderby's house, necessitated the purchase
of his first razor, and exercised him diligently
in his calculations relative to number one.

The same great manufacturer, always with
an immense variety of work on hand, in every
stage of development, passed Sissy onward
in his mill, and worked her up into a very
pretty article indeed.

"I fear, Jupe," said Mr. Gradgrind, " that
your continuance at the school any longer,
would be useless."

"I am afraid it would, sir," Sissy answered
with a curtsey.

"I cannot disguise from you, Jupe," said
Mr. Gradgrind, knitting his brow, "that
the result of your probation there has
disappointed me; has greatly disappointed
me. You have not acquired, under Mr.
and Mrs. M'Choakumchild, anything like
that amount of exact knowledge which
I looked for. You are extremely deficient
in your facts. Your acquaintance with
figures is very limited. You are altogether
backward, and below the mark."

"I am sorry, sir," she returned; " but I
know it is quite true. Yet I have tried hard,
sir."

"Yes," said Mr. Gradgrind, " yes, I believe
you have tried hard; I have observed you,
and I can find no fault in that respect."

"Thank you, sir. I have thought sometimes;"
Sissy very timid here; " that perhaps
I tried to learn too much, and that if I
had asked to be allowed to try a little less, I
might have—"

"No, Jupe, no," said Mr. Gradgrind, shaking
his head in his profoundest and most
eminently practical way. " No. The course
you pursued, you pursued according to the
system—the system—and there is no more to
be said about it. I can only suppose that the
circumstances of your early life, were too
unfavourable to the development of your
reasoning powers, and that we began too
late. Still, as I have said already, I am
disappointed."

"I wish I could have made a better
acknowledgment, sir, of your kindness to a
poor forlorn girl who had no claim upon you,
and of your protection of her."

"Don't shed tears," said Mr. Gradgrind.
"Don't shed tears. I don't complain of you.
You are an affectionate, earnest, good young
woman, and—and we must make that do."

"Thank you, sir, very much," said Sissy,
with a grateful curtsey.

"You are useful to Mrs. Gradgrind, and (in a
generally pervading way) you are serviceable
in the family also; so I understand from Miss
Louisa, and, indeed, so I have observed myself.
I therefore hope," said Mr. Gradgrind, "that
you can make yourself happy in those
relations."

"I should have nothing to wish, sir, if—"

"I understand you," said Mr. Gradgrind;
"you still refer to your father. I have heard
from Miss Louisa that you still preserve that
bottle. Well! If your training in the
science of arriving at exact results had been
more successful, you would have been wiser
on these points. I will say no more."

He really liked Sissy too well to have a
contempt for her; otherwise he held her
calculating powers in such very slight estimation,
that he must have fallen upon that
conclusion. Somehow or other, he had