The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1905-05-14

to run away with him..
III her aeilgnt and in the noise OF rain
upon the foliage (for thunderstorm
was rolling up) Mrs. Sparsit did not
catch Louisa s answer. Where Hart
house asked hei. to Join him and when.
she could not hear. hut as he mounted
and rode away she thought he said
l#''To-night." She waited in the rain, re-
joicing, till her patience was at length
rewarded by seeing Louisa, cloakcd and
yelled as II for journey, come from
the house and go toward the railroad
station. Then Mrs. Sparsit, drawing her
draggled shawl over her head to hide
her features, followed. boarded the, same
train, and FASTENED to tell the news OF
his wife's elopemcnt to Bounderby in
London.
Wet to the skin, her feet squashlng
in her shoes, her clothes spoiled and her
bonnet looking like an overripe fig, with
a terrible cold that made her voice only
q whisper, and sneezing herself almost
to pieces, she found Bounderby at his
city hotel. exploded with the combusti-
BILE Information she carried and tainted
away on his coat collar 8
! Furons at the news she brought, EEounu-l
erby hustled her into a fast train, and
together, he raging and blhrfng and
she inwardly jubilant they hurried to-
ward Coketown to inform Mr.. Grad
grind, who was then at home, Of his
daughters doinGs M x stis 4f5S2
K But WHERE meanwhile. was Louisa 2; Not
run away with 4 Harthouse,a as Mls
Sparsit so fondiy imagined, but safe in
her own fathers house8n Coketown. She
had suffered much incomplanlngly, bat
lighthouses proposal had been the last
straw. Added to all the indignitles she
had suffered at her husbands hands,
and her fearful suspicion Of TOMS guilt,
1T had proven too much for her TO bear.
She had pretended to agree to Hart
houses plan only that she might the moro
quickly rid herself of; his presence.
Mr. Gradgrlnd. astnnished at her sud
den arrival at Stone Lodge was shocked
no less at her CHASTITY 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. ever
hope. affection and fancy crushed from
her very infancy and her better angel
made a demon. She told him the whole
truth about her marriage to Boundsrby---
that she had married him soiely for the
advancement Of Tom, the only one she
had ever loved \. that now she could no
longer live with her husband or bear tho
life she had made for herself. Anc
when she had said this, Louisa. the
daughter his System" had brought to-
such despair, fell at his feet.
AT her fitiful tale the tender heart
that Mr. Gradgrind had buried in his
long past youth under his mountain of
Facts stirred again and began sStoi pea
The mountain crumbled away, and. he
saw in an 3instant.as by aflightning flash
that his plan of ifc to which he had SO
rigidly held was q complete and mucous
failure. He had thought, there was but
one wisdom, that Of the head; he knew
there was 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 Jaded and older He told
her he realized at last his life mistake
and that he bitterly reproached himself.
Sissy, too, was there, her love shining
like beautiful light on the others dark
ness. she knelt beside the bed and laid
the weary head on her breast and then
for tho first time Louisa burst into SO os.
Next day Sissy sought out Harthouse,l
who was waiting, full Of s,llky impa-E
thence at the failure Of Louisa to appear
as he had expected, and told him plainly
what had occurred, and that he shoulu
never see Louisa again. Harthousc.
realized that his plan had failed. s ,,,
denly discovered that he had q great Tx a
ling for camels, and left the same hour
| for Egypt, never to return to- Coketown.
1t was while Sissy was absent on TINS
Grand OF her own that the furious
| 3ounderby and the triumphant Mrs, spar
sit. the latter voiceless and still sneezlng,
appeared at Stone Lodge Mr. Gra az
grind took the halloween greatly npncK
with tho news that Louisa had had no
Intention whatever OF clipping and was
then in that same house and under ms
care Nonplussed and clustering, BOUND
erby turned on Mrs, Sparsit, who IN her
dIsappolntment at finding 1t q mistake,
had dissolved in tears, and angrily order
ed her home. Feeling that he had peeh
made a fool Of he would listen TO nothing
Mr., Gradgrind proposed, When the3..it,
Ter told him he had conclnaea ~ Wo o..,a
be better for Louisa to remain Tor SONS
! time there with him, Bounderby flew mo
| a still greater rage and stamped OH,
! swearing his wife should come home ~
4 nool, next day or not ut all.
TO be sure Louisa did not go, and next
! day Boundcrby sent her clothes TO MI.
/ Gradgrind, advertising his country house .se
4 for sale and needing something lo ,.AMe
his spite out upon, redoubled his efforts
/ to find tho robber Of the bank.
And he began by covering the town with
4 printed placards, offering a large reWa ru
i rorSthe arrest of Stephen Blackpool.
4.--Stephen's Return.
Rachel had known, of course, OF the
rumors against Stephen, and had been
1 both indignant and sorrowful,l She alone
I.knew where he was, for, finding 1t inl-
i possible on account of his trouble with
i the Coketown workmen to obtain work
under his own name, he had taken ans
! other. Now that he was directly charged
4 with the crime, she wrote him the new s
at once, SO that he might lose no time in
returning to face the unjust accusations.
Being so certain herself OF his innor
/ conce she mada no secret Of what she
4 had done, ana all Coketown waited. wop-
dering whether he would appear or not,
Two days passed and no had not come,
4 and then Rachel told Bounderby. the ad-
dress to which she had written him.
Messengers were sent. who came back
Il With the report that Stephen had re-
/ celyed her letter and had left at once,
! saying he WAS going to coketown, wherS
d he should long since have arrived. An
other day With no Stephen, and now al
most every one believed ne was gu'ltyt