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that she must not attend any more.
Still, if her father really has left her, without any connivance on her
part- Bounderby, let me have a word with you. Upon this, Mr
Childers politely betook himself, with his equestrian walk, to the
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landing outside the door, and there stood stroking his face and
softly whistling. While thus engaged, he overheard such phrases in
Mr Bounderby s voice as  No. I say no. I advise you not. I say by
no means. While, from Mr Gradgrind, he heard in his much lower
tone the words,  But even as an example to Louisa, of what this
pursuit which has been the subject of a vulgar curiosity, leads to
and ends in. Think of it, Bounderby, in that point of view.
Meanwhile, the various members of Sleary s company gradually
gathered together from the upper regions, where they were
quartered, and, from standing about, talking in low voices to one
another and to Mr Childers, gradually insinuated themselves and
him into the room. There were two or three handsome young
women among them, with their two or three husbands, and their
two or three mothers, and their eight or nine little children, who
did the fairy business when required. The father of one of the
families was in the habit of balancing the father of another of the
families on the top of a great pole; the father of a third family often
made a pyramid of both those fathers, with Master Kidderminster
for the apex, and himself for the base; all the fathers could dance
upon rolling casks, stand upon bottles, catch knives and balls, twirl
hand-basins, ride upon anything, jump over everything, and stick
at nothing. All the mothers could (and did) dance, upon the slack
wire and the tight rope, and perform rapid acts on barebacked
steeds; none of them were at all particular in respect of showing
their legs; and one of them, alone in a Greek chariot, drove six in
hand into every town they came to. They all assumed to be mighty
rakish and knowing, they were not very tidy in their private
dresses, they were not at all orderly in their domestic
arrangements, and the combined literature of the whole company
would have pro- duced but a poor letter on any subject. Yet there
was a remarkable gentleness and childishness about these people, a
special inaptitude for any kind of sharp practice, and an untiring
readiness to help and pity one another, deserving, often of as much
respect, and always of as much generous construction, as the
everyday virtues of any class of people in the world.
Last of all appeared Mr Sleary: a stout man as already mentioned,
with one fixed eye and one loose eye, a voice (if it can be called so)
like the efforts of a broken old pair of bellows, a flabby surface,
and a muddled head which was never sober and never drunk.
 Thquire! said Mr Sleary, who was troubled with asthma, and
whose breath came far too thick and heavy for the letter s,  Your
thervant! Thith ith a bad piethe of bithnith, thith ith. You ve heard
of my Clown and hith dog being thuppothed to have morrithed?
He addressed Mr Gradgrind, who answered  Yes.  Well Thquire,
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he returned, taking off his hat, and rubbing the lining with his
pocket-handkerchief, which he kept inside it for the purpose.  Ith it
your intenthion to do anything for the poor girl, Thquire?  I shall
have something to propose to her when she comes back, said Mr
Gradgrind.
 Glad to hear it, Thquire. Not that I want to get rid of the child, any
more than I want to thtand in her way. I m willing to take her
prentith, though at her age ith late. My voithe ith a little huthky,
Thquire, and not eathy heard by them ath don t know me; but if
you d been chilled and heated, heated and chilled, chilled and
heated in the ring when you wath young, ath often ath I have been,
your voithe wouldn t have lathted out, Thquire, no more then
mine.  I dare say not, said Mr Gradgrind.
 What thall it be, Thquire, while you wait? Thall it be Therry? Give
it a name, Thquire! said Mr Sleary, with hospitable ease.
 Nothing for me, I thank you, said Mr Gradgrind. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]