now, as if the spirit of prophecy rose within
her, but had better be coughed clown.

"However, ma'am," said Bounderby,
"there are apartments at the Bank, where a
born and bred lady, as keeper of the place,
would be rather a catch than otherwise; and
if the same terms—"

"I beg your pardon, sir. You were so
good as to promise that you would always
substitute the phrase, annual compliment."

"Well, ma'am, annual compliment. If the
same annual compliment would be acceptable
there, why, I see nothing to part us unless
you do."

"Sir," returned Mrs. Sparsit. "The
proposal is like yourself, and if the position I
should assume at the Bank is one that I
could occupy without descending lower in the
social scale——-"

"Why, of course it is," said Bounderby.
"If it was not, ma'am, you don't suppose that
I should offer it to a lady who has moved
in the society you have moved in. Not that
I care for such society, you know! But
you do."

"Mr. Bounderby, you are very considerate."

"You'll have your own private apartments,
and you'll have your coals and your candles
and all the rest of it, and you'll have your
maid to attend upon you, and you'll have
your light porter to protect you, and you'll
be what I take the liberty of considering
precious comfortable," said Bounderby.

"Sir," rejoined Mrs. Sparsit, "say no
more. In yielding up my trust here, I shall
not be freed from the necessity of eating the
bread of dependence:" she might have said
the sweetbread, for that delicate article in a
savoury brown sauce was her favourite
supper:" and I would rather receive it from
your hand, than from any other. Therefore, sir,
I accept your offer gratefully, and with many
sincere acknowledgments for past favors. And
I hope sir," said Mrs. Sparsit, concluding in
an impressively compassionate manner, "I
fondly hope that Miss Gradgrind may be all
you desire, and deserve!"

Nothing moved Mrs. Sparsit from that
position any more. It was in vain for
Bounderby to bluster, or to assert himself in any
of his explosive ways; Mrs. Sparsit was
resolved to have compassion on him, as a
Victim. She was polite, obliging, cheerful,
hopeful; but, the more polite, the more
obliging, the more cheerful, the more hopeful,
the more exemplary altogether, she; the
forlorner Sacrifice and Victim, he. She had
that tenderness for his melancholy fate, that
his great red countenance used to break out
into cold perspirations when she looked at
him.

Meanwhile the marriage was appointed
to be solemnised in eight weeks' time, and
Mr. Bounderby went every evening to Stone
Lodge as an accepted wooer. Love was made
on these occasions in the form of bracelets;
and, on all occasions during the period of
betrothal, took a manufacturing aspect.
Dresses were made, jewellery was made,
cakes and gloves were made, settlements
were made, and an extensive assortment of
Facts did appropriate honor to the contract.
The business was all Fact, from first to last.
The Hours did not go through any of those
rosy performances, which foolish poets have
ascribed to them at such times; neither did
the clocks go any faster, or any slower, than
at other seasons. The deadly-statistical
recorder in the Gradgrind observatory knocked
every second on the head as it was born, and
buried it with his accustomed regularity.

So the day came, as all other days come to
people who will only stick to reason; and
when it came, there were married in the
church of the florid wooden legs—that
popular order of architecture—Josiah
Bounderby Esquire of Coketown, to Louisa eldest
daughter of Thomas Gradgrind Esquire of
Stone Lodge, M.P. for that borough. And
when they were united in holy matrimony,
they went home to breakfast at Stone Lodge
aforesaid.

There was an improving party assembled
on the auspicious occasion, who knew what
everything they had to eat and drink was
made of, and how it was imported or
exported, and in what quantities, and in what
bottoms, whether native or foreign, and all
about it. The bridesmaids, down to little
Jane Gradgrind, were, in an intellectual
point of view, fit helpmates for the calculating
boy; and there was no nonsense about any
of the company.

After breakfast, the bridegroom addressed
them in the following terms.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am Josiah
Bounderby of Coketown. Since you have done
my wife and myself the honour of drinking
our healths and happiness, I suppose I must
acknowledge the same; though, as you all
know me, and know what I am, and what my
extraction was, you won't expect a speech
from a man who, when he sees a Post, says
'that's a Post,' and when he sees a Pump, says
'that's a Pump,' and is not to be got to call a
Post a Pump, or a Pump a Post, or either of
them a Toothpick. If you want a speech this
morning, my friend and father-in-law, Tom
Gradgrind, is a Member of Parliament, and
you know where to get it. I am not your
man. However, if I feel a little independent
when I look around this table to-day, and
reflect how little I thought of marrying Tom
Gradgrind's daughter when I was a ragged
street-boy, who never washed his face unless
it was at a pump, and that not oftener than
once a fortnight, I hope I may be excused.
So, I hope you like my feeling independent;
if you don't, I can't help it. I do feel
independent. Now, I have mentioned, and you
have mentioned, that I am this day married
to Tom Gradgrind's daughter. I am very
glad to be so. It has long been my wish to