TIME went on in Coketown like its own machinery1: so much material wrought2 up, so much fuel consumed, so many powers worn out, so much money made. But, less inexorable than iron, steal, and brass3, it brought its varying seasons even into that wilderness4 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-tailed 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 inmate5 of Bounderby's house, necessitated6 the purchase of his first razor, and exercised him diligently7 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 onward8 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 probation9 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 deficient10 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 eminently11 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 pervading12 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 become possessed13 by an idea that there was something in this girl which could hardly be set forth14 in a tabular form. Her capacity of definition might be easily stated at a very low figure, her mathematical knowledge at nothing; yet he was not sure that if he had been required, for example, to tick her off into columns in a parliamentary return, he would have quite known how to divide her.
In some stages of his manufacture of the human fabric15, the processes of Time are very rapid. Young Thomas and Sissy being both at such a stage of their working up, these changes were effected in a year or two; while Mr. Gradgrind himself seemed stationary16 in his course, and underwent no alteration17.
Except one, which was apart from his necessary progress through the mill. Time hustled18 him into a little noisy and rather dirty machinery, in a by-comer, and made him Member of Parliament for Coketown: one of the respected members for ounce weights and measures, one of the representatives of the multiplication19 table, one of the deaf honourable20 gentlemen, dumb honourable gentlemen, blind honourable gentlemen, lame21 honourable gentlemen, dead honourable gentlemen, to every other consideration. Else wherefore live we in a Christian22 land, eighteen hundred and odd years after our Master?
All this while, Louisa had been passing on, so quiet and reserved, and so much given to watching the bright ashes at twilight23 as they fell into the grate, and became extinct, that from the period when her father had said she was almost a young woman - which seemed but yesterday - she had scarcely attracted his notice again, when he found her quite a young woman.
'Quite a young woman,' said Mr. Gradgrind, musing24. 'Dear me!'
Soon after this discovery, he became more thoughtful than usual for several days, and seemed much engrossed25 by one subject. On a certain night, when he was going out, and Louisa came to bid him good-bye before his departure - as he was not to be home until late and she would not see him again until the morning - he held her in his arms, looking at her in his kindest manner, and said:
'My dear Louisa, you are a woman!'
She answered with the old, quick, searching look of the night when she was found at the Circus; then cast down her eyes. 'Yes, father.'
'My dear,' said Mr. Gradgrind, 'I must speak with you alone and seriously. Come to me in my room after breakfast to-morrow, will you?'
'Yes, father.'
'Your hands are rather cold, Louisa. Are you not well?'
'Quite well, father.'
'And cheerful?'
She looked at him again, and smiled in her peculiar26 manner. 'I am as cheerful, father, as I usually am, or usually have been.'
'That's well,' said Mr. Gradgrind. So, he kissed her and went away; and Louisa returned to the serene27 apartment of the haircutting character, and leaning her elbow on her hand, looked again at the short-lived sparks that so soon subsided28 into ashes.
'Are you there, Loo?' said her brother, looking in at the door. He was quite a young gentleman of pleasure now, and not quite a prepossessing one.
'Dear Tom,' she answered, rising and embracing him, 'how long it is since you have been to see me!'
'Why, I have been otherwise engaged, Loo, in the evenings; and in the daytime old Bounderby has been keeping me at it rather. But I touch him up with you when he comes it too strong, and so we preserve an understanding. I say! Has father said anything particular to you to-day or yesterday, Loo?'
'No, Tom. But he told me to-night that he wished to do so in the morning.'
'Ah! That's what I mean,' said Tom. 'Do you know where he is to- night?' - with a very deep expression.
'No.'
'Then I'll tell you. He's with old Bounderby. They are having a regular confab together up at the Bank. Why at the Bank, do you think? Well, I'll tell you again. To keep Mrs. Sparsit's ears as far off as possible, I expect.'
With her hand upon her brother's shoulder, Louisa still stood looking at the fire. Her brother glanced at her face with greater interest than usual, and, encircling her waist with his arm, drew her coaxingly29 to him.
'You are very fond of me, an't you, Loo?'
'Indeed I am, Tom, though you do let such long intervals30 go by without coming to see me.'
'Well, sister of mine,' said Tom, 'when you say that, you are near my thoughts. We might be so much oftener together - mightn't we? Always together, almost - mightn't we? It would do me a great deal of good if you were to make up your mind to I know what, Loo. It would be a splendid thing for me. It would be uncommonly31 jolly!'
Her thoughtfulness baffled his cunning scrutiny32. He could make nothing of her face. He pressed her in his arm, and kissed her cheek. She returned the kiss, but still looked at the fire.
'I say, Loo! I thought I'd come, and just hint to you what was going on: though I supposed you'd most likely guess, even if you didn't know. I can't stay, because I'm engaged to some fellows to- night. You won't forget how fond you are of me?'
'No, dear Tom, I won't forget.'
'That's a capital girl,' said Tom. 'Good-bye, Loo.'
She gave him an affectionate good-night, and went out with him to the door, whence the fires of Coketown could be seen, making the distance lurid33. She stood there, looking steadfastly34 towards them, and listening to his departing steps. They retreated quickly, as glad to get away from Stone Lodge35; and she stood there yet, when he was gone and all was quiet. It seemed as if, first in her own fire within the house, and then in the fiery36 haze37 without, she tried to discover what kind of woof Old Time, that greatest and longest- established Spinner of all, would weave from the threads he had already spun38 into a woman. But his factory is a secret place, his work is noiseless, and his Hands are mutes.
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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inmate
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| n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人 | |
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necessitated
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| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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diligently
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| ad.industriously;carefully | |
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onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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probation
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| n.缓刑(期)，(以观后效的)察看；试用(期) | |
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deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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pervading
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的现在分词 ) | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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alteration
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| n.变更，改变；蚀变 | |
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hustled
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| 催促（hustle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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multiplication
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| n.增加，增多，倍增；增殖，繁殖；乘法 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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musing
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| n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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engrossed
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| adj.全神贯注的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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coaxingly
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| adv. 以巧言诱哄，以甘言哄骗 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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steadfastly
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| adv.踏实地，不变地；岿然；坚定不渝 | |
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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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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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