Chapter 17
book two reaping chapter i effects in the bank a sunny midsummer day there was such a thing sometimes even in coketown seen from a distance in such weather coketown lay shrouded in a haze of its own which appeared impervious to the sun's rays you only knew the town was there because you knew there could have been no such sulky blotch upon the prospect without a town a blur of soot and smoke now confusingly tending this way now that way now aspiring to the vault of heaven now murkily creeping along the earth as the wind rose and fell or changed its quarter a dense formless jumble with sheets of cross-light in it that showed nothing but masses of darkness coke town in the distance was suggestive of itself though not a brick of it could be seen
the wonder was it was there at all it had been ruined so often that it was amazing how it had borne so many shocks surely there never was such a fragile china ware as that of which the millers of coketown were made handled them never so lightly and they fell to pieces with such ease that you might suspect them of having been flawed before they were ruined when they were required to send laboring children to school they were ruined when inspectors were appointed to look into their works they were ruined when such inspectors considered it doubtful whether they were quite justified in chopping people up with their machinery they were utterly undone when it was hinted that perhaps they need not always make quite so much smoke besides mr bounderby's gold spoon which was generally received in coketown another prevalent fiction was very popular there it took the form of a threat whenever a coke-towner felt he was ill-used that is to say whenever he was not left entirely alone and it was proposed to hold him accountable for the consequences of any of his acts
he was sure to come out with the awful menace that he would sooner pitch his property into the atlantic this had terrified the home secretary within an inch of his life on several occasions however the coke-towners were so patriotic after all that they never had pitched their property into the atlantic yet but on the contrary had been kind enough to take mighty good care of it so there it was in the haze yonder and it increased and multiplied the streets were hot and dusty on the summer day and the sun was so bright that it even shone through the heavy vapor drooping over coketown and could not be looked at steadily stokers emerged from low underground doorways into factory yards and set on steps and posts and paling wiping their swarthy visages and contemplating coals the whole town seemed to be frying in oil there was a stifling smell of hot oil everywhere
the steam-engines shone with it the dresses of the hands were soiled with it the mills throughout their many stories oozed and trickled it the atmosphere of those fairy palaces was like the breath of the simoom and their inhabitants wasting with heat toiled languidly in the desert but no temperature made the melancholy mat elephants more mad or more sane their wearisome heads went up and down at the same rate in hot weather and cold wet weather and dry fair weather and foul the measured motion of their shadows on the walls was the substitute coketown had to show for the shadows of rustling woods while for the summer hum of insects it could offer all year round from the dawn of monday to the night of saturday the whirr of shafts and wheels drowsily they whirred all through this sunny day making the passenger more sleepy and more hot as he passed the humming walls of the mills
sun-blinds and sprinklings of water a little cooled the main streets and the shops but the mills and the courts and alleys baked at a fierce heat down upon the river that was black and thick with dye some coketown boys who were at large a rare sight there rowed a crazy boat which made a spumous attack upon the water as it jogged along while every dip of an oar stirred up vile smells but the sun itself however beneficent generally was less kind to coketown than hard frost and rarely looked intently into any of its closer regions without engendering more death than life so does the eye of heaven itself become an evil eye when incapable or sordid hands are interposed between it and the things it looks upon to bless mrs sparsett sat in her afternoon apartment at the bank on the shadier side of the frying-street office hours were over and at that period of the day in warm weather
she usually embellished with her genteel presence a managerial board-room over the public office her own private sitting-room was a story higher at the window of which post of observation she was ready every morning to greet mr bounderby as he came across the road with the sympathizing recognition appropriate to a victim he had been married now a year and mrs sparsett had never released him from her determined pity a moment the bank offered no violence to the wholesome monotony of the town it was another red-brick house with black outside shutters green inside blinds a black street door up two white steps a brazen door-plate and a brazen door-handle full stop it was a size larger than mr bounderby's house as other houses were from a size to half a dozen sizes smaller in all other particulars it was strictly according to pattern mrs sparsett was conscious that by coming in the evening tide among the desks and writing implements she shed a feminine not to say also aristocratic grace upon the office
seated with her needlework or netting apparatus at the window she had a self-laudatory sense of correcting by her lady-like deportment the rude business aspect of the place with this impression of her interesting character upon her mrs sparsit considered herself in some sort the bank fairy the townspeople who in their passing and repassing saw her there regarded her as the bank dragon keeping watch over the treasures of the mine what these treasures were mrs sparsett knew as little as they did gold and silver coin precious paper secrets that if divulged would bring vague destruction upon vague persons generally however people whom she disliked were the chief items in her ideal catalogue thereof for the rest she knew that after office hours he reigned supreme over all the office furniture and over a locked-up iron room with three locks against the door of which strong chamber the light porter laid his head every night on a truckle-bed that disappeared at cockcrow further she was lady paramount over certain vaults in the basement sharply spiked off from communication with the predatory world
and over the relics of the current day's work consisting of blots of ink worn-out pens fragments of wafers and scraps of paper torn so small that nothing interesting could ever be deciphered on them when mrs parsitt tried lastly she was guardian over a little armory of cutlasses and carbines arrayed in vengeful order above one of the official chimney-pieces and over that respectable tradition never to be separated from a place of business claiming to be wealthy a row of fire-buckets vessels calculated to be of no physical utility on any occasion but observed to exercise a fine moral influence almost equal to bullion on most beholders a deaf serving-woman and the light porter completed mrs sparsett's empire the deaf serving-woman was rumoured to be wealthy and a saying had for years gone about among the lower orders of coketown that she would be murdered some night when the bank was shut for the sake of her money
it was generally considered indeed that she had been due some time and ought to have fallen long ago but she had kept her life and her situation with an ill-conditioned tenacity that occasioned much offence and disappointment mrs sparsett's tea was just set for her on a pert little table with its tripod of legs in an attitude which she insinuated after office hours into the company of a stern leathern-topped long board table that bestrode the middle of the room the light porter placed the tea-tray on it knuckling his forehead as a form of homage thank you bitzer said mrs sparsett thank you ma'am returned the light porter he was a very light porter indeed as light as in the days when he blinkingly defined a horse for girl number twenty all is shut up pitzer said mrs sparsett all is shut up ma'am and what said mrs sparsett pouring out her tea is the news of the day anything well ma'am i can't say that i've heard anything particular our people are a bad lot ma'am but that is no news unfortunately what are the restless wretches doing now asked mrs sparsett merely going on in the old way ma'am
uniting and leaguing and engaging to stand by one another it is much to be regretted said mrs sparsett making her nose more roman and her eyebrows more cariolanian in the strength of her severity that the united masters allow of any such class combinations yes ma'am said bitzer being united themselves they ought one and all to set their faces against employing any man who is united with any other man said mrs sparsit they have done that ma'am returned bitzer but it rather fell through ma'am i do not pretend to understand these things said mrs sparsit with dignity my lot having been signally cast in a widely different sphere and mr sparsett as a paula being also quite out of the pale of any such dissensions i only know that these people must be conquered and that it's high time it was done once for all "'Yes, ma'am,' returned Bitzer, with a demonstration of great respect for Mrs. Sparsett's oracular
authority. "'You couldn't put it clearer, I am sure, ma'am.' As this was his usual hour for having a little confidential chat with Mrs. Sparsett, and as he had already caught her eye and seen that she was going to ask him something, he made a pretense of arranging the rulers, inkstands, and so forth, while that lady went on with her tea, glancing
through the open window down into the street. "'Has it been a busy day, Bitsa?' asked Mrs. Sparset. "'Not a very busy day, my lady. About an average day.' He now and then slided into m'lady instead of ma'am, as an involuntary acknowledgement of Mrs. Sparset's personal dignity and claims to reverence.
"'The clerks?' said Mrs. Sparset, carefully brushing an imperceptible crumb of bread and butter from her left-hand mitten are trustworthy punctual and industrious of course yes ma'am pretty fair ma'am with the usual exception he held the respectable office of general spy and informer in the establishment for which volunteer service he received a present at christmas over and above his weekly wage he had grown into an extremely clear-headed cautious prudent young man who was safe to rise in the world his mind was so exactly regulated that he had no affectations or passions all his proceedings were the result of the nicest and coldest calculation and it was not without cause that mrs sparsett habitually observed of him that he was a young man of the steadiest principle she had ever known
having satisfied himself on his father's death that his mother had a right of settlement in coketown this excellent young economist had asserted that right for her with such a steadfast adherence to the principle of the case that she had been shut up in a workhouse ever since it must be admitted that he allowed her half a pound of tea a year which was weak in him first because all gifts have an inevitable tendency to pauperize the recipient and secondly because his only reasonable transaction in that commodity would have been to buy it for as little as he could possibly give and sell it for as much as he could possibly get it having been clearly ascertained by philosophers that in this is comprised the whole duty of man not a part of man's duty but the whole pretty fair ma'am with the usual exception ma'am repeated bitzer ah said mrs sparsett shaking her head over her tea-cup and taking a long gulp
mr thomas ma'am i doubt mr thomas very much ma'am i don't like his ways at all bit sir said mrs sparsett in a very impressive manner do you recollect my having said anything to you respecting names i beg your pardon ma'am it's quite true that you did object to names being used and they're always best avoided please to remember that i have a charge here said mrs sparsett with her air of state i hold a trust here bitzer under mr However improbable both Mr. Bounderby and myself might have deemed it years ago, that he would ever become my patron, making me an annual compliment, I cannot but regard him in that light. From Mr. Bounderby I have received every acknowledgement of my social station, and every recognition of my family descent that I could possibly expect—more, far more. Therefore, to my patron I will be scrupulously true.
And I do not consider, I will not consider, I cannot consider, said Mrs. Parsant, with a most extensive stock on hand of honour and morality, that I should be scrupulously true, if I allowed names to be mentioned under this roof, that are unfortunately, most unfortunately, no doubt of that, connected with his. bitzer knuckled his forehead again and again begged pardon no bitzer continued mrs sparsett say an individual and i will hear you say mr thomas and you must excuse me "'With the usual exception, ma'am,' said Bitzer, trying back, "'of an individual. "'Ah!'
Mrs. Sparsett repeated the ejaculation, the shake of the head over her tea-cup, and the long gulp, as taking up the conversation again at that point where it had been interrupted. "'An individual, ma'am,' said Bitzer, "'has never been what he ought to have been since he first came into the place. "'He is a dissipated, extravagant idler.
"'He is not worth his salt, ma'am. "'You wouldn't get it either "'if he hadn't a friend and relation at court, ma'am.' "'Ah!' said Mrs. Sparsett, "'with another melancholy shake of her head.
"'I only hope, ma'am,' pursued Bitzer, "'that his friend and relation "'may not supply him with the means of carrying on. "'Otherwise, ma'am, we know out of whose pocket that money comes.
Ah! sighed Mrs. Sparsett again, with another melancholy shake of her head. He is to be pitied, ma'am. The last party I have alluded to
is to be pitied, ma'am, said Bitzer. Yes, Bitzer, said Mrs. Sparsett. I have always pitied the delusion.
Always. As to an individual, ma'am, said Bitzer, dropping his voice and drawing nearer, "'He is as improvident as any of the people in this town.
"'And you know what their improvidence is, ma'am. "'No one could wish to know it better than a lady of your eminence does.' "'They would do well,' returned Mrs. Sparsett, "'to take example by you, Bitsa.' "'Thank you, ma'am.
"'But since you do refer to me, now look at me, ma'am. "'I have put by a little, ma'am, already. that gratuity which i receive at christmas ma'am i never touch it i don't even go to the length of my wages though they're not i ma'am why can't they do as i have done ma'am what one person can do another can do this again was among the fictions of coke town any capitalist there who made sixty thousand pounds out of sixpence always professed to wonder why the sixty thousand nearest hands didn't each make sixty thousand pounds out of sixpence and more or less reproached them every one for not accomplishing the little feat what i did you can do why don't you go and do it
as to their wanting recreations ma'am said betzer it's stoof and nonsense i don't want recreations i never did and i never shall i don't like em as to their combining together there are many of them i have no doubt that by watching and informing upon one another could earn a trifle now and then whether in money or goodwill and improve their livelihood then why don't they improve it ma'am it's the first consideration of a rational creature and it's what they pretend to want pretend indeed said mrs parsitt i am sure we are constantly erring ma'am till it becomes quite nauseous concerning their wives and families said bitzer why look at me ma'am i don't want a wife and family why should they because they are improvident said mrs sparsett yes ma'am returned bitzer that's where it is if they were more provident and less perverse ma'am what would they do they would say while my act covers my family or while my bonnet covers my family as the case might be ma'am i've only one to feed and that's the person i most like to feed
to be sure assented mrs sparsett eating muffin thank you ma'am said bitzer knuckling his forehead again in return for the favour of mrs sparsett's improving conversation would you wish a little more hot water ma'am or is there anything else that i could fetch you nothing just now bitzer thank you ma'am i shouldn't wish to disturb you at your meals ma'am particularly tea knowing your partiality for it said bitzer craning a little to look over into the street from where he stood but there's been a gentleman been looking up here for a minute or so ma'am and he has come across as if he was going to knock that is his knock ma'am no doubt he stepped to the window and looking out and drawing in his head again confirmed himself with yes ma'am would you wish the gentleman to be shown in ma'am i don't know who it can be said mrs sparsett wiping her mouth and arranging her mitten a stranger ma'am evidently "'What can a stranger want at the bank this time of evening, unless he comes upon some
business for which he is too late, I don't know?' said Mrs. Parsitt. "'But I hold a charge in this establishment from Mr. Bounderby, and I will never shrink from it. If to see him is any part of the duty I have accepted, I will see him. Use your own discretion, Bitser.' Here the visitor, all unconscious of Mrs. Parsitt's magnanimous words, repeated his
knock so loudly that the light porter hastened down to open the door, while Mrs. Sparsett took the precaution of concealing her little table, with all its appliances upon it, in a cupboard, and then decamped upstairs, that she might appear, if needful, with the greater dignity. "'If you please, ma'am, the gentleman would wish to see you,' said Bitzer, with his light eye at Mrs. Sparsett's keyhole. So Mrs. Sparsett, who had improved the interval by touching up her cap,
took her classical features downstairs again, and entered the boardroom in the manner of a Roman matron going outside the city walls to treat with an invading general. The visitor, having strolled to the window, and being then engaged in looking carelessly out, was as unmoved by this impressive entry as man could possibly be. He stood whistling to himself, with all imaginable coolness, with his hat still on, and a certain air of exhaustion upon him,
in part arising from excessive summer, and in part from excessive gentility. For it was to be seen, with half an eye, that he was a thorough gentleman, made to the model of the time, weary of everything and putting no more faith in anything than lucifer i believe sir quoth mrs sparsett you wished to see me i beg your pardon he said turning and removing his hat pray excuse me thought mrs sparsett as she made a stately bend five and thirty good looking good figure good teeth good voice good breeding well dressed dark hair bold eyes all which mrs sparsett observed in her womanly way like the sultan who put his head in the pail of water merely in dipping down and coming up again please to be seated sir said mrs sparsett thank you allow me he placed a chair for her but remained himself carelessly lounging against the table i left my servant at the railway looking after the luggage very heavy train and vast quantity of it in the van and strolled on looking about me
exceedingly odd place will you allow me to ask if it's always as black as this in general much blacker returned mrs sparsett in her uncompromising way is it possible excuse me you are not a native i think no sir returned mrs parsitt it was once my good or ill fortune as it may be before i became a widow to move in a very different sphere my husband was a paula beg your pardon really said the stranger was mrs sparsett repeated a paula paula family said the stranger after reflecting a few moments mrs sparsett signified assent the stranger seemed a little more fatigued than before you must be very much bored here was the inference he drew from the communication i am the servant of circumstances sir said mrs parsitt and i have long adapted myself to the governing power of my life very philosophical returned the stranger and very exemplary and laudable and-it seemed to be scarcely worth his while to finish the sentence so he played with his watch-chain wearily may i be permitted to ask sir
said mrs sparsett to what i am indebted for the favour of assuredly said the stranger much obliged to you for reminding me i am the bearer of a letter of introduction to mr bounderby the banker walking through this extraordinarily black town while i were getting dinner ready at the hotel i asked a fellow whom i met one of the working people who seemed to have been taking a shower-bath of something fluffy which i assumed to be the raw material Mrs. Sparsett inclined her head. Raw material, where Mr. Bounderby, the banker, might reside. Upon which, misled, no doubt, by the word banker, he directed me to the bank.
Fact being, I presume that Mr. Bounderby, the banker, does not reside in the edifice to which I have the honour of offering his explanation? No, sir, returned Mrs. Sparsett. He does not. Thank you.
i had no intention of delivering my letter at the present moment nor have i but strolling on to the bank to kill time and having the good fortune to observe at the window towards which he languidly waved his hand then slightly bowed a lady of a very superior and agreeable appearance i considered that i could not do better than take the liberty of asking that lady where mr bounderby the banker does live which i accordingly venture with all suitable apologies to do the inattention and indolence of his manner were sufficiently relieved to mrs sparsett's thinking by a certain gallantry at ease which offered her homage to here he was for instance at this moment all but sitting on the table and yet lazily bending over her as if he acknowledged an attraction in her that made her charming in her way banks i know are always suspicious and officially must be said the stranger whose lightness and smoothness of speech were pleasant likewise suggesting matter far more sensible and humorous than it ever contained
which was perhaps a shrewd device of the founder of his numerous sect whosoever may have been that great man therefore i may observe that my letter here it is is from the member for this place gradgrind whom i have had the pleasure of knowing in london mrs sparsett recognized the hand intimated that such confirmation was quite unnecessary and gave mr bounderby's address with all needful clues and directions in aid "'A thousand thanks,' said the stranger. "'Of course you know the banker well?' "'Yes, sir,' rejoined Mrs. Parsitt.
"'In my dependent relation towards him, I have known him ten years.' "'Quite an eternity. I think he married Gradgrin's daughter?' "'Yes,' said Mrs. Parsitt, suddenly compressing her mouth. "'He had that honour.' "'The lady is quite a philosopher, I am told.'
indeed sir said mrs sparsett is she excuse my impertinent curiosity pursued the stranger fluttering over mrs sparsett's eyebrows with a propitiatory air but you know the family and know the world i am about to know the family and may have much to do with them is the lady so very alarming her father gives her such a portentously hard-headed reputation that i have a burning desire to know is she absolutely unapproachable repellently and stunningly clever i see by your meaning smile you think not you will pour balm into my anxious soul as to age now forty five-and-thirty mrs sparsett laughed outright ha a chit said she not twenty when she was married i give you my honour mrs parlor returned the stranger detaching himself from the table that i never was so astonished in my life it really did seem to impress him to the utmost extent of his capacity of being impressed he looked at his informant for full a quarter of a minute
and appeared to have the surprise in his mind all the time i assure you mrs powler he then said much exhausted that the father's manner prepared me for a grim and stony maturity i'm obliged to you of all things for correcting so absurd a mistake pray excuse my intrusion many thanks good day he bowed himself out and mrs sparsett hiding in the window-curtain saw him languishing down the street on the shady side of the way observed of all the town what do you think of the gentleman bitzer she asked the light porter when he came to take away spends a deal of money on his dress ma'am it must be admitted said mrs sparsett that it's very tasteful yes ma'am returned bitzer if that's worth the money besides which ma'am resumed bitzer while he was polishing the table looks to me as if he'd gamed it's immoral to game said mrs sparsett it's ridiculous ma'am said bitzer
because the chances are against the players whether it was the heat that prevented mrs sparsett from working or whether it was that her hand was out she did no work that night she sat at the window when the sun began to sink behind the smoke she sat there when the smoke was burning red when the colour faded from it when darkness seemed to rise slowly out of the ground and creep upward upward up to the house-tops up to the church steeple up to the summits of the factory chimneys up to the sky without a candle in the room mrs sparsett sat at the window with her hands before her not thinking much of the sounds of evening the whooping of boys the barking of dogs the rumbling of wheels the steps and voices of passengers the shrill street cries the clogs upon the pavement when it was their hour for going by the shutting up of shop shutters not until the light porter announced that her nocturnal sweetbread was ready did mrs sparsett arouse herself from her reverie and convey her dense black eyebrows
by that time creased with meditation as if they needed ironing out upstairs oh you fool said mrs parsitt when she was alone at her supper whom she meant she did not say but she could scarcely have meant the sweet bread chapter one
