MR. BOUNDERBY being a bachelor, an elderly lady presided over his establishment, in consideration of a certain annual stipend1. Mrs. Sparsit was this lady's name; and she was a prominent figure in attendance on Mr. Bounderby's car, as it rolled along in triumph with the Bully2 of humility3 inside.
For, Mrs. Sparsit had not only seen different days, but was highly connected. She had a great aunt living in these very times called Lady Scadgers. Mr. Sparsit, deceased, of whom she was the relict, had been by the mother's side what Mrs. Sparsit still called 'a Powler.' Strangers of limited information and dull apprehension4 were sometimes observed not to know what a Powler was, and even to appear uncertain whether it might be a business, or a political party, or a profession of faith. The better class of minds, however, did not need to be informed that the Powlers were an ancient stock, who could trace themselves so exceedingly far back that it was not surprising if they sometimes lost themselves - which they had rather frequently done, as respected horse-flesh, blind-hookey, Hebrew monetary5 transactions, and the Insolvent6 Debtors7' Court.
The late Mr. Sparsit, being by the mother's side a Powler, married this lady, being by the father's side a Scadgers. Lady Scadgers (an immensely fat old woman, with an inordinate8 appetite for butcher's meat, and a mysterious leg which had now refused to get out of bed for fourteen years) contrived9 the marriage, at a period when Sparsit was just of age, and chiefly noticeable for a slender body, weakly supported on two long slim props10, and surmounted11 by no head worth mentioning. He inherited a fair fortune from his uncle, but owed it all before he came into it, and spent it twice over immediately afterwards. Thus, when he died, at twenty-four (the scene of his decease, Calais, and the cause, brandy), he did not leave his widow, from whom he had been separated soon after the honeymoon12, in affluent13 circumstances. That bereaved14 lady, fifteen years older than he, fell presently at deadly feud15 with her only relative, Lady Scadgers; and, partly to spite her ladyship, and partly to maintain herself, went out at a salary. And here she was now, in her elderly days, with the Coriolanian style of nose and the dense16 black eyebrows17 which had captivated Sparsit, making Mr. Bounderby's tea as he took his breakfast.
If Bounderby had been a Conqueror18, and Mrs. Sparsit a captive Princess whom he took about as a feature in his state-processions, he could not have made a greater flourish with her than he habitually19 did. Just as it belonged to his boastfulness to depreciate20 his own extraction, so it belonged to it to exalt21 Mrs. Sparsit's. In the measure that he would not allow his own youth to have been attended by a single favourable22 circumstance, he brightened Mrs. Sparsit's juvenile23 career with every possible advantage, and showered waggon-loads of early roses all over that lady's path. 'And yet, sir,' he would say, 'how does it turn out after all? Why here she is at a hundred a year (I give her a hundred, which she is pleased to term handsome), keeping the house of Josiah Bounderby of Coketown!'
Nay24, he made this foil of his so very widely known, that third parties took it up, and handled it on some occasions with considerable briskness25. It was one of the most exasperating26 attributes of Bounderby, that he not only sang his own praises but stimulated27 other men to sing them. There was a moral infection of clap-trap in him. Strangers, modest enough elsewhere, started up at dinners in Coketown, and boasted, in quite a rampant28 way, of Bounderby. They made him out to be the Royal arms, the Union-Jack, Magna Charta, John Bull, Habeas Corpus, the Bill of Rights, An Englishman's house is his castle, Church and State, and God save the Queen, all put together. And as often (and it was very often) as an orator29 of this kind brought into his peroration30,
'Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, A breath can make them, as a breath has made,'
- it was, for certain, more or less understood among the company that he had heard of Mrs. Sparsit.
'Mr. Bounderby,' said Mrs. Sparsit, 'you are unusually slow, sir, with your breakfast this morning.'
'Why, ma'am,' he returned, 'I am thinking about Tom Gradgrind's whim31;' Tom Gradgrind, for a bluff32 independent manner of speaking - as if somebody were always endeavouring to bribe33 him with immense sums to say Thomas, and he wouldn't; 'Tom Gradgrind's whim, ma'am, of bringing up the tumbling-girl.'
'The girl is now waiting to know,' said Mrs. Sparsit, 'whether she is to go straight to the school, or up to the Lodge34.'
'She must wait, ma'am,' answered Bounderby, 'till I know myself. We shall have Tom Gradgrind down here presently, I suppose. If he should wish her to remain here a day or two longer, of course she can, ma'am.'
'Of course she can if you wish it, Mr. Bounderby.'
'I told him I would give her a shake-down here, last night, in order that he might sleep on it before he decided35 to let her have any association with Louisa.'
'Indeed, Mr. Bounderby? Very thoughtful of you!' Mrs. Sparsit's Coriolanian nose underwent a slight expansion of the nostrils36, and her black eyebrows contracted as she took a sip37 of tea.
'It's tolerably clear to me,' said Bounderby, 'that the little puss can get small good out of such companionship.'
'Are you speaking of young Miss Gradgrind, Mr. Bounderby?'
'Yes, ma'am, I'm speaking of Louisa.'
'Your observation being limited to "little puss,"' said Mrs. Sparsit, 'and there being two little girls in question, I did not know which might be indicated by that expression.'
'Louisa,' repeated Mr. Bounderby. 'Louisa, Louisa.'
'You are quite another father to Louisa, sir.' Mrs. Sparsit took a little more tea; and, as she bent38 her again contracted eyebrows over her steaming cup, rather looked as if her classical countenance39 were invoking40 the infernal gods.
'If you had said I was another father to Tom - young Tom, I mean, not my friend Tom Gradgrind - you might have been nearer the mark. I am going to take young Tom into my office. Going to have him under my wing, ma'am.'
'Indeed? Rather young for that, is he not, sir?' Mrs. Spirit's 'sir,' in addressing Mr. Bounderby, was a word of ceremony, rather exacting41 consideration for herself in the use, than honouring him.
'I'm not going to take him at once; he is to finish his educational cramming42 before then,' said Bounderby. 'By the Lord Harry43, he'll have enough of it, first and last! He'd open his eyes, that boy would, if he knew how empty of learning my young maw was, at his time of life.' Which, by the by, he probably did know, for he had heard of it often enough. 'But it's extraordinary the difficulty I have on scores of such subjects, in speaking to any one on equal terms. Here, for example, I have been speaking to you this morning about tumblers. Why, what do you know about tumblers? At the time when, to have been a tumbler in the mud of the streets, would have been a godsend to me, a prize in the lottery44 to me, you were at the Italian Opera. You were coming out of the Italian Opera, ma'am, in white satin and jewels, a blaze of splendour, when I hadn't a penny to buy a link to light you.'
'I certainly, sir,' returned Mrs. Sparsit, with a dignity serenely45 mournful, 'was familiar with the Italian Opera at a very early age.'
'Egad, ma'am, so was I,' said Bounderby, ' - with the wrong side of it. A hard bed the pavement of its Arcade46 used to make, I assure you. People like you, ma'am, accustomed from infancy47 to lie on Down feathers, have no idea how hard a paving-stone is, without trying it. No, no, it's of no use my talking to you about tumblers. I should speak of foreign dancers, and the West End of London, and May Fair, and lords and ladies and honourables.'
'I trust, sir,' rejoined Mrs. Sparsit, with decent resignation, 'it is not necessary that you should do anything of that kind. I hope I have learnt how to accommodate myself to the changes of life. If I have acquired an interest in hearing of your instructive experiences, and can scarcely hear enough of them, I claim no merit for that, since I believe it is a general sentiment.'
'Well, ma'am,' said her patron, 'perhaps some people may be pleased to say that they do like to hear, in his own unpolished way, what Josiah Bounderby, of Coketown, has gone through. But you must confess that you were born in the lap of luxury, yourself. Come, ma'am, you know you were born in the lap of luxury.'
'I do not, sir,' returned Mrs. Sparsit with a shake of her head, 'deny it.'
Mr. Bounderby was obliged to get up from table, and stand with his back to the fire, looking at her; she was such an enhancement of his position.
'And you were in crack society. Devilish high society,' he said, warming his legs.
'It is true, sir,' returned Mrs. Sparsit, with an affectation of humility the very opposite of his, and therefore in no danger of jostling it.
'You were in the tiptop fashion, and all the rest of it,' said Mr. Bounderby.
'Yes, sir,' returned Mrs. Sparsit, with a kind of social widowhood upon her. 'It is unquestionably true.'
Mr. Bounderby, bending himself at the knees, literally48 embraced his legs in his great satisfaction and laughed aloud. Mr. and Miss Gradgrind being then announced, he received the former with a shake of the hand, and the latter with a kiss.
'Can Jupe be sent here, Bounderby?' asked Mr. Gradgrind.
Certainly. So Jupe was sent there. On coming in, she curtseyed to Mr. Bounderby, and to his friend Tom Gradgrind, and also to Louisa; but in her confusion unluckily omitted Mrs. Sparsit. Observing this, the blustrous Bounderby had the following remarks to make:
'Now, I tell you what, my girl. The name of that lady by the teapot, is Mrs. Sparsit. That lady acts as mistress of this house, and she is a highly connected lady. Consequently, if ever you come again into any room in this house, you will make a short stay in it if you don't behave towards that lady in your most respectful manner. Now, I don't care a button what you do to me, because I don't affect to be anybody. So far from having high connections I have no connections at all, and I come of the scum of the earth. But towards that lady, I do care what you do; and you shall do what is deferential49 and respectful, or you shall not come here.'
'I hope, Bounderby,' said Mr. Gradgrind, in a conciliatory voice, 'that this was merely an oversight50.'
'My friend Tom Gradgrind suggests, Mrs. Sparsit,' said Bounderby, 'that this was merely an oversight. Very likely. However, as you are aware, ma'am, I don't allow of even oversights51 towards you.'
'You are very good indeed, sir,' returned Mrs. Sparsit, shaking her head with her State humility. 'It is not worth speaking of.'
Sissy, who all this time had been faintly excusing herself with tears in her eyes, was now waved over by the master of the house to Mr. Gradgrind. She stood looking intently at him, and Louisa stood coldly by, with her eyes upon the ground, while he proceeded thus:
'Jupe, I have made up my mind to take you into my house; and, when you are not in attendance at the school, to employ you about Mrs. Gradgrind, who is rather an invalid52. I have explained to Miss Louisa - this is Miss Louisa - the miserable53 but natural end of your late career; and you are to expressly understand that the whole of that subject is past, and is not to be referred to any more. From this time you begin your history. You are, at present, ignorant, I know.'
'Yes, sir, very,' she answered, curtseying.
'I shall have the satisfaction of causing you to be strictly54 educated; and you will be a living proof to all who come into communication with you, of the advantages of the training you will receive. You will be reclaimed55 and formed. You have been in the habit now of reading to your father, and those people I found you among, I dare say?' said Mr. Gradgrind, beckoning56 her nearer to him before he said so, and dropping his voice.
'Only to father and Merrylegs, sir. At least I mean to father, when Merrylegs was always there.'
'Never mind Merrylegs, Jupe,' said Mr. Gradgrind, with a passing frown. 'I don't ask about him. I understand you to have been in the habit of reading to your father?'
'O, yes, sir, thousands of times. They were the happiest - O, of all the happy times we had together, sir!'
It was only now when her sorrow broke out, that Louisa looked at her.
'And what,' asked Mr. Gradgrind, in a still lower voice, 'did you read to your father, Jupe?'
'About the Fairies, sir, and the Dwarf57, and the Hunchback, and the Genies,' she sobbed58 out; 'and about - '
'Hush59!' said Mr. Gradgrind, 'that is enough. Never breathe a word of such destructive nonsense any more. Bounderby, this is a case for rigid60 training, and I shall observe it with interest.'
'Well,' returned Mr. Bounderby, 'I have given you my opinion already, and I shouldn't do as you do. But, very well, very well. Since you are bent upon it, very well!'
So, Mr. Gradgrind and his daughter took Cecilia Jupe off with them to Stone Lodge, and on the way Louisa never spoke61 one word, good or bad. And Mr. Bounderby went about his daily pursuits. And Mrs. Sparsit got behind her eyebrows and meditated62 in the gloom of that retreat, all the evening.
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stipend
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| n.薪贴；奖学金；养老金 | |
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bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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monetary
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| adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的 | |
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insolvent
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| adj.破产的，无偿还能力的 | |
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debtors
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| n.债务人，借方( debtor的名词复数 ) | |
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inordinate
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| adj.无节制的；过度的 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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props
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| 小道具； 支柱( prop的名词复数 )； 支持者； 道具； （橄榄球中的）支柱前锋 | |
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surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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honeymoon
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| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
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affluent
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| adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的 | |
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bereaved
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| adj.刚刚丧失亲人的v.使失去（希望、生命等）( bereave的过去式和过去分词)；（尤指死亡）使丧失（亲人、朋友等）；使孤寂；抢走（财物） | |
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feud
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| n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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depreciate
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| v.降价，贬值，折旧 | |
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exalt
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| v.赞扬，歌颂，晋升，提升 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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juvenile
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| n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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briskness
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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rampant
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| adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的 | |
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orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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peroration
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| n.（演说等之）结论 | |
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whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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sip
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| v.小口地喝，抿，呷；n.一小口的量 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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invoking
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| v.援引( invoke的现在分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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cramming
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| n.塞满，填鸭式的用功v.塞入( cram的现在分词 )；填塞；塞满；（为考试而）死记硬背功课 | |
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harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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lottery
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| n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事 | |
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serenely
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| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
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arcade
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| n.拱廊；(一侧或两侧有商店的)通道 | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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49
deferential
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| adj. 敬意的，恭敬的 | |
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50
oversight
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| n.勘漏，失察，疏忽 | |
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oversights
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| n.疏忽( oversight的名词复数 )；忽略；失察；负责 | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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reclaimed
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| adj.再生的；翻造的；收复的；回收的v.开拓( reclaim的过去式和过去分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救 | |
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56
beckoning
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| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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dwarf
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| n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小 | |
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58
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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