The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22


 husband for herself. She submitted to fate, though. and retired to apart ments over the bank furnished for her by MT .Bounderby. who also continued her yearly compliment" These terms of equalization, she managed adroitly to conclude with her employer before she left his house. She was a fountain of compliments to his ability and good sense before his face, but if he could have seen the manner in which Mrs. 1 Sparsit shook her aged fist in the face of his picture when he was absent and muttered "noodle." he would have known better the real state of mind of that estimable female concerning him Bounderby could but contrast some times the just appreciation which Mrs. Sparsit had of his manifold virtues and his greatness with the calm indifference | almost verging upon contempt, with which his wife treated him. But the l feeling that his wife did not appreciate | him he would try to put away with the reflection: How could it be possible for Tom Gradgrlnd's daughter mot to ad- mire and appreciate Josiah Bounderby | of Coketown."
 And now there came to Col1etown q young man with bored manner and letter of introduction to Bounderby. The letter was from Gradgrind who was now in Parliament. This MT, James Harth ouse had tried life as cornet of dragons and found it a bore; had tried 1 life Us an attache of an English Minis ter abroad. and found it a bore; gone yachting around the world, and got bored everywhere He had a brother in Parliament, and this brother had sug- gested that James go to Coketown and come back from Coketown as collea que of MT. Gradgrind in Parliament assembled. '"There Is an opening among those hard fact fellows" said the honorable member to his brother. "Go in for statistics; its easy enough" | So James drifted 10 Coketown, and Mr. l Bounderby was detailed to initiate him | into the solemn mysteries of the hard fact fellows.
 MT. James Harthouse /, when he saw what sort of hole Coketown was | would have fled from it's precincts at once but for Louisa Bounderby. Louisa | did not bore Hr. Farmhouse. He thought her the most remarkable girl he had | ever seen. She was so constraining and yet so careless; so reserved and | yet watchful; so cold and proud and | so sensitively ashamed of her husband s braggart humility-from which she shrunk as if every example of 1t were a cut or blow-that 1t was quite a fA nhS Har | features were handsome. but tn cir nat
 ural play seemed to be locked up so
 that it was impossible to guess at their
 natural expression. Utterly indifferent
 perfectly self-reliant, never at a loss
 and never entirely at ease-she baffled
 MT. James Harthouse's penetration.
 Farmhouse saw her face light with a genuine. expression of emotion when Tom cal De in. and said to himself: "Ah, there is one person. anyway, who can
 move her." Harthouse invited Tom to
 his rooms at the hotel gave the young
 man to drink copiously and to smoke
 furiously and pumped him of all the
 family secrets. MT. Farmhouse summed
 up his opinion oe Tom in one word
 whelp-got the whelp drunk and sent him home by porter.
 It was very remarkable that a youth
 brought up under one continuous sys-
 tenn of restraint should be hypocrite,
 but it certainly was the case with Tom.
 It is very strange that young gentle
 man who had never been left to his own guidance for five consecutive minutes
 should at last be incapable of govern
 ing himself; but so 1t was with Tom.
 It was altogether unaccountable that a young gentleman whose agination
 had been strangled in the craddle should
 still be inconvenienced by it's ghosts in
 the shape of groveling sensualities:
 but such a monster beyond all doubt | was Tom.
 MT. Harthouse first began to interest
 ing after the welfare of Tom Finally he
 saw that the face which before had light
 ed up only at the appearance of Tom
 would take on smile upon his own ap-
 pearance. Ever since her marriage Lou
 isa had treated Cecela Jupe with great | coldness-she who used to be so tender
 with her! The fact was that when l
 about to marry Bounderby. Cecelia had
 looked at her with an expression which
 Louisia had never forgiven.
 One evening Bounderby summoned be-
 fore him one of his hands who had got
 into trouble with the trades union. This
 hand, one Stephen Blacipool, had re-
 fused to join the union. Stephen was
 cursed with drunken wife, who occa-
 sionally appeared to him, in state of in- toxication, pawned what she could of his
 household effects and then disappeared
 again. There was one Rachel the love
 of his youth, whom he might have mar
 ried had he not been hewitched by the
 pretty face of the woman who had ruined | his life, and this Rachel tried to be his | good angel. She had unwisely extracted
 promise from him that he would have nothing to do with the union and it's | loud-mouthed, troube-malklng profession al agitators. Therefore was it that he refused to join the union, and the other
 hands had sent him to coventry. MT. | Bounderby sent for Stephen to hear the facts. To the horror of MT. Bounderby, stephen approved the aims of the union, and said that only his promise kept him from joining it. He also detailed some of the grievances of the hands, and said they ought to be rectfied. Cried MT. Bounderby: You can't pull the wool over my eyes I can sec that you a ra